TEXT-VII (Part 1, article 1-6) : Important Documents on Party Line and Programme

1

Extracts From

The President’s Address[1]

— M Singaravelu

[This is a long address interspersed with pieces of poetry including a stanza of the International, and contains many sub- heads which we have had to omit altogether. These include: Our Suffering Comrades, The Great Dead, Death of Lenin, Our Country’s Martyrs (on Tilak, CR Das, Siva of South India), Our Countrymen (on the wretched conditions of the masses), Communism in Action (i.e., in Russia), etc. -Ed.]

Our Conference : At a time when the opponents of communism are attempting to crush our beneficent movement for making this world happier and pleasanter for all human beings dwelling in it, we communists in India are meeting in this hall today to take a general view of the political and economic situation obtaining in India, and to concert measures by which we can render the life of our own countrymen better and happier. We wish that our peaceful movement will be better understood both by our countrymen and our rulers, by means of the deliberations we are having here in this conference, and we hope that our work will be better appreciated by the general public, especially the industrial and agricultural workers for whose benefit this conference is mainly held.

Our Persecutors : Judged by the persecution to which our comrades in this land and in other lands are put, we should think that our movement is totally misunderstood and misinterpreted by the ruling classes, and to them we have only one answer to make — that is the answer which one of the greatest of our race gave to his persecutors at Calvary 2000 years ago, “Oh, you know not what you do.” It is unfortunate that in this world of ours, the pioneers of every reform, whether social or religious, political or economic, scientific or philosophical, are obliged to suffer for their thoughts, ideas and actions. But as kalachakra, the wheel of time, rolls on, the suffering which the world reformers have undergone spur others to further suffering, until in the end the whole world stands to adore them. …

Communism and Swaraj : In the great struggle for swaraj which is now in progress throughout the country, we communists have to take up the greatest share in the struggle. Though small, even negligible in number, we form the vanguard of the future workers’ state of India. Therefore we have to see that the workers and peasants in the land have their rights recognised in any constitutional change that may come about in the immediate future. Whatever may be the form of swaraj which we may get, the workers’ and peasants’ right to live a decent human life here on earth should be vouchsafed to them. … The motto therefore of every Indian communist ought to be : “No life without swaraj and no swaraj without workers”.

Communism and Congress : … This is one organisation whose potentiality for good was great. The National Congress was once a power in the land. Though bourgeois in origin, in scope and outlook, it was the one organisation which continually voiced the political grievances of the nation. Under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi it was a live force for at least a year. During the campaign of the non-cooperation movement the prestige of the Congress was at its height. It aimed at swaraj without defining it or much less understanding it. It spoke in the name of the people. It acted in the name of the people. When its great leader called the nation to offer non-violent fight against the bureaucracy, thousands responded and they placed their all at the altar of freedom of the land. But it struck blindly. Instead of directing its whole weight against the bureaucracy and rendering it impotent for evil, it struck wildly in all directions. It burdened itself with the redress of all sorts of grievances, political, social, economical and religious and therefore it got itself hopelessly entangled in mutually contradictory ideas and actions. If it had only struck for swaraj and sought for the cooperation of the workers in the fight for it, it would have succeeded. But it weighted itself with all sorts of considerations including those of ethics, that the NCO campaign which opened so brilliantly under its auspices broke down under its own weight, and the retreat of the movement which began at Bardoli ended in the arrest and confinement of its great leader without a word of protest from his followers. The bureaucracy triumphed and the leaders humbled. Amidst turmoil and confusion in the nationalist ranks, the surviving leaders of the movement quarreled among themselves and split into various parties, and the split is still undergoing further division. A very numerous party among congressmen who survived the debacle at Bardoli, formed themselves into a new party and calling themselves swarajists, they sought to capture the legislative councils and began to give fight to the bureaucracy within the councils which they once abandoned. But here again the bourgeois mentality has begun to show its cloven hoofs even in the council fight, and the Swarajist Party which under Deshbandhu showed some clean fight, has begun to degenerate into a fight for loaves and fishes of office among themselves. From this short resume of the rise and fall of various Congress parties engaged in the pursuit for swaraj, one thing stands clear before the nation, that it is impossible for the bourgeoisie of the country to secure swaraj for the nation unaided. … Neither the congressmen nor the present dominant party of swarajists will be able to bend the bureaucracy to their will without the active cooperation of ogranised workers. … Therefore it is the duty of the communists to take up the organisation of the masses, and endeavour to obtain swaraj. Whether with or without the cooperation of other political parties of the country, that is for you to decide.

Note :

1. The Address was printed in a pamphlet form and distributed at the Kanpur Conference, which founded the CPI (December 26,1925).

Communism and Swarajists : Council-entry, with or without office, has become the dominant plank of the swarajists. It stands to the credit of the swarajists to have brought the bureaucracy to a halt in its triumphant career. … But the Indian bureaucracy, like the other bureaucracies of the rest of the world, is inexhaustible in its resources, and it is too shrewd and too powerful to be easily defeated. … Nothing short of completely paralysing the bureaucratic administration will bring the bureaucracy to its knees, but to achieve this consummation the active cooperation of the organised labour is necessary. … Here again the communists have to learn from the successive failure of every political party in this country that in the organisation of the workers and peasants lies their salvation and that of their country. Whether you have to agitate for direct labour representation in the councils is also one of the subjects which you may tackle in your present deliberations.

Communism and Suppressed Classes : … We shall take first the problem of untouchability … from the standpoint of communism this question of untouchability is purely an economical problem. Whether this class of people are admitted into temples or tanks or streets is not a question connected with our fight for swaraj. With the advent of swaraj, these social and religious disabilities will fall of themselves. Communists have neither caste nor creed nor religion. As Hindus, Mohammadans or Christians, they may have any private views about them. The question of untouchability is essentially associated with economic dependence of the vast mass of these Indians. … The Problem of untouchability is essentially an agrarian problem, and unless this economic dependence is relieved talk of removing untouchability is basely insincere. While the no-changer is talking big of injustice and inhumanity of treating our fellow- being as untouchables, he carefully avoids any reference to their starving, famishing homes. Here is an example of the bourgeois mentality of the Indian reformer who, while waxing eloquent against social wrongs, is significantly silent over the economic degradation to which the country’s bourgeoisie have confined these millions of our agrarian workers … we communists should therefore press the economic claims of the suppressed classes by advocating a living wage to be given to them by which they can make their life at least endurable.

A word with reference to khaddar and its potentiality to win for us swaraj. … To wear khaddar as a national costume in our fight for swaraj, we can grant that it may be necessary, in the absence of any other national uniform, but that it would supplement machine-made cloth is an impossible feat. And that such production would effectively boycott foreign cloth is still more problematical. … To ask the famishing worker to drudge at the charkha for few more hours in order to supplement his scanty wages with his still more scanty earnings by means of the charkha, is simply cruel. If the agricultural labourer has no work for few months in the year, let him be provided with work which will give him higher wages or let him be given the opportunity to acquire higher knowledge so as to raise himself equal to his more cultured brethren in the cities, but let us not make him drudge again throughout his weary life without any prospect of any intellectual improvement. Mankind has been steadily growing out of manual drudgery by the aid of the machine, and this has secured him some leisure for higher pursuit of life which has raised him higher in the scale of animal existence. But to drive him again back to manual labour which he can dispense with is not simply cruel but absurd … no amount of patriotism will bring back the primitive art so as to clothe a whole nation of 300 millions. But to make it in a limited scale so as to serve the fighters for swaraj as a uniform is possible, and this the Spinning Association we hope will succeed in doing. Whether it is absolutely necessary for us communists to wear it on all occasions, that you have to decide yourself individually. …

Communism Defined : … What is communism? It is a system or doctrine which aims at the betterment of humanity from almost all the ills of life. It sets out that the workers of the world are providing things more than sufficient to feed, to clothe and to house decently all the human beings on this planet. It further sets out that the whole of the world population can have all the advantage of enjoying the necessaries of higher life also. But because the means of production are in the sole monopoly of few men, the actual producers are made to starve and to suffer. Therefore such means of production should be in the hands of the producers themselves in order that everyone can have a fair share in all the things produced by them. This is all what is meant by communism. … To preach this doctrine in India so as to benefit all classes, all castes, all parties, is the work of Communist Party in India. Communism is as old as history. It was taught by Buddha in a form and practised by his disciples. Jesus as an Essene was himself a communist. Plato, Moore, Morris and others taught mankind a form of communism which was vague, indefinite and Utopian. But it was Karl Marx who gave it a scientific and a definite form so as to be applicable in practice.

Marxian Communism : … Broadly speaking, the world contains two classes of people, namely, those that have and those that have not, that is the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. These two classes are always in conflict. The one commanding all the capital and the other labour. The owner of capital has the advantage of dictating to the workers upon what conditions he would accept their services. The labouring class not having the requisite capital, are obliged to sell their services on the conditions dictated by the capitalist. Pressed by hunger and want, the labeurers accept the conditions offered, whether he is a worker of industries or of land. Productions increase, markets, fresh markets, are added for the disposal of the things produced, and these things go on in such geometrical ratio that the capitalist comes to own the whole of the world means of production. The working people are more and more divorced from the means of production, and ultimately become wage-slaves. … This has been the world history from the remotest times, but after advent of capitalist industry his existence has become precarious, … and he forms into unions to protect his interest. The unions composed of these workers are the only organisation through which the worker of today is able to protect his rights against the growing exploitation. Thus the capitalists range themselves on one side and the workers on the other. These classes are in constant conflict for the possession of the world’s resources. In this conflict enter the world workers with a solution for ending this age-long conflict between these two classes. It is in the equitable distribution of the world’s things brought on by the abolishment of private ownership in the essential wants of life lies the future solution of the conflict between capital and labour. Thus Marx explained the rise and growth of modern capital, which, according to him, can only be used for the benefit of all the workers themselves who form the vast majority of the world’s population controlling it. This is Marx’s scientific exposition of modern communism.

Communism and Competition : … It is unfortunate that today competition rules in every sphere of political, social and economic relationships. It rules commerce, it rules industries, it rules policies of state and society. It determines the foreign relations of the state. It dominates production and distribution of world resources. Its guiding principle is profit and not use. The only way to get out of this octopus is to destroy it, and substitute for it cooperation in which human labour and production may be brought into a common hotchpot for common use and benefit. This can be done only through communism which is another name for universal cooperation. …

Indian Communism is not Bolshevism : As I explained at the outset, Indian communism is not bolshevism for bolshevism is a form of communism which the Russians have adopted in their country. We are not Russian bolsheviks and bolshevism may not be needed in India. Bolshevism literally means the doctrine of the majority. And this Russian majority are men in power in Russia with the peculiar method of their rule, administration and propaganda. Bolsheviks are the political party in power in Russia as opposed to mensheviks, the minority party, now out of power. We are one with the world communists but not with bolsheviks. We hope this explanation of our position in India will clear all misapprehensions about our party and aims and method. We shall briefly state our aims, meth&ds and ideals.

Our Communist Ideal : First, our ideal is to end the domination of capital, make war impossible, wipe out state boundaries and frontiers and weld all states into one corporate commonwealth and bring about real human fraternity and freedom. This is the dream of the communist.
Our Immediate Aims: And our immediate aim is to win swaraj for the masses in India, to prevent exploitation of the workers and peasants by suitable land and industrial legislation, to secure to the bread-winner a minimum wage by which he and his children shall have the necessaries of a decent life and to end all distinction of caste, creed or sect in all political and economic relationships.

Our Method : And all this, we hope to achieve through the unions of labour and peasants, through persuasion, through propaganda and when necessary, in cooperation with other political organisations in the country. We require the cooperation of all other parties in the country to secure the workers’ rights in the land. But we feel no doubt that we will be the party who will ultimately succeed in securing these rights to the Indian peoples and therefore we appeal to all thinkers and workers to join our party and work both for our communist ideals and our immediate aims.

Appeal to Workers : To the workers of India, we say organise your unions, strong numerically and financially, for only in your organisation lies your strength. Do not dissipate your energy in futile strikes for trifles. Conserve all your strength by combining with other unions and make common cause for all your grievances, and if you have to strike, strike with full force and effect. …

Appeal to Peasants : To the peasants in India, we say you are the real salt of the earth. We communists know your sufferings and your wrongs. … But the denouement is fast approaching, while your haughty masters will sink into merited neglect, you the peasants will be proclaimed alike worthy and beautiful and you will become supreme. …

Danger Ahead : … The communal and religious differences which seem to destroy the harmony which once obtained among all political parties in the country during the heyday of NCO may overtake us also, for I fear that we, Indians, are so religious minded and caste-ridden that the fire which is burning our neighbours’ houses may also reach ours. … The country today is again torn asunder by these religious and communal differences. The leaders who flaunt these fripperies before us are traitors to our country and to our cause. The Hindu sabhas, sangathans, shuddhis are mere bourgeois tactics of the leisured class. Let us therefore leave religion, caste and creed to each individual tastes and fancies, and let us pursue our peaceful course towards swaraj, free from these nightmares. …

Conclusion : Comrades, what we communists should aim in India is a simple life for all, a life free from anxiety for the daily bread, a life free from premature death and decay, a life free from ignorance. We communists should believe that by the gradual and peaceful application of the principles of communism, a better life can be brought about in India. The future of India is in our hands. A better India lies in our dreams. Let us therefore try to realise the dream of a free India, free from exploitation of the weak by the strong, free from drudgery which killeth our life, free from starvation, disease and death, free to express our thoughts without let or hindrance, but enjoy the highest product of art, science and culture. …

2

Draft Platform of Action of The Communist Party of India

(Abridged)

To All Comntunist Parties of Europe, America and Asia

Dear Comrades,

We are sending you the draft platform of action of our party, which we ask you to publish in all working class papers. We ask you to print in your papers all corrections, and suggestions; which members of your party will propose. It will help us to work out a final draft of our platform.

With revolutionary greetings,

COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA.

Part – I

Main tasks of the Indian revolution

The Indian people is groaning under the yoke and the exploitation of British Imperialism. …

With all the power of the state in its hands, controlling the main branches of industry, railways, sea and river transport, banks and credit system, the greater part of the land, forests and the irrigation system, British imperialism has retarded and still obstructs the economic development of our country in every way, supporting and relying upon all that is backward and retrograde in town and country.

The supremacy of British imperialism is the basis of the backwardness, poverty and endless suffering of our people. Only by the merciless and violent destruction of the political economic supremacy of the British imperialists will the working masses of India succeed in rising to their feet, achieving their independence and creating conditions requisite for their further development and for the reconstruction of Society in the interests of the workers and peasants, and with the purpose of developing further towards Socialism.

In the enslavement of the Indian people British imperialism relies upon the native princes, the landlords, the moneylenders and the merchants, utilising the assistance of the national bourgeoisie. The system of landownership by the landlords, native princes and moneylenders, and the relics of serfdom in the land system of India (and consequently in all India’s social and political institutions) represent the main bulwark of British supremacy.

In order to destroy the slavery of the Indian people and emancipate the working class and the peasants from the poverty which is crushing them down, it is essential to win the independence of the country and to raise the banner of agrarian revolution, which would smash the system of landlordism surviving from the middle ages and would cleanse the whole of the land from all this medieval rubbish. An agrarian revolution against British capitalism and landlordism must be the basis for the revolutionary emancipation of India.

Linked up as it is with the system of landlordism and usury, and terrified at the thought of a revolutionary insurrection by the toiling masses, the capitalist class has long ago betrayed the struggle for the independence of the country and the radical solution of the agrarian problem. Its present “opposition” represents merely manoeuvres with British imperialism, calculated to swindle the mass of the toilers and at the same time to secure the best possible terms of compromise with the British robbers. The assistance granted to British imperialism by the capitalist class and its political organisation, the National Congress takes the shape at the present time of a consistent policy of compromise with British imperialism at the expense of the people, it takes the form of the disorganisation of the revolutionary struggle of the masses and the preservation of the system of imperialism, including the native states, the system of landlordism and the reinforced exploitation, jointly with the imperialists, of the mass of the people, of the working class in particular. The greatest threat to the victory of the Indian revolution is the fact that great masses of our people still harbour illusions about the National Congress, and have not realised that it represents a class organisation of the capitalists working against the fundamental interests of the toiling masses of our country.

The policy of Gandhiism, on which the programme of the Congress is founded, uses the cloak of vague phrases about love, meekness, modest and hardworking existence, lightening the burden of the peasantry, the national unity, the special historic mission of Spiritualism, etc. But under this cloak it preaches and defends the interests of Indian capitalists, the inevitability and wisdom of the division of society into rich and poor, eternal social inequality and exploitation. That is, it preaches the interests of the capitalist development of India on the bone and sweat of the working masses of the people, in alliance with world imperialism. The National Congress betrayed and disorganised the struggle of the toilers in 1919-21. The National Congress supported the manufacturers against the workers during the textile strike and in fact assisted in the passing of anti-labour legislation. The National Congress refused to support the fight of railwaymen against British imperialism, suggesting that they should ask Lord Irwin and Macdonald to arbitrate. The National Congress opposed the peasantry in their struggle against the moneylenders, big landlords and the native princes.

Jointly with the Liberals, the landlords and the manufacturers, the National Congress has produced the anti-popular Nehru Constitution, in which it declared the necessity of preserving the landlords, the rajahs and the moneylenders, remaining as a junior partner in the British Empire and leaving supreme authority in the hands of the British Viceroys and the Governors-General.

The National Congress issued the Delhi Manifesto supporting Gandhi’s eleven points, which represented the moderate programme of the Chambers of Commerce, and similar associations. It carried on negotiations with the Liberals in prison trying behind the scenes to come to an understanding with the British Government; and so forth. The National Congress, and particularly its “Left” wing, have done and are doing all in their power to restrain the struggle of the masses within the frame work of the British imperialist Constitution and legislation.

In this connection, world history and the lessons of the class struggle in India prove that only the leadership of the working class can ensure the fulfillment of the historic task of emancipating the Indian people, abolishing national slavery, sweeping aside all the fetters which check national development, confiscating the land and effecting far-reaching democratic reconstruction of revolutionary character. …

… The Communist Party of India is the party of the working class, the final aim of which is the achievement of Socialism and ultimately of complete Communism. The programme of the Communist Party of India is totally different in principle from the programmes and ideas of the other parties and groups, which are parties of the capitalist class and petty bourgeoisie, not excepting the national revolutionary parties. While the latter are striving for the development of capitalism in India, the Communist Party is consistently and firmly fighting for a Socialist path of development. While the national revolutionary groups are fighting for bourgeois rule and a bourgeois form of government the CP of India is fighting for the democratic dictatorship of the working class and the peasantry, a workers and peasants’ Soviet Government in India.

The only form of government which can safeguard the interests of the workers, peasants and toilers generally is the Soviets. The Soviets, set up in the course of the revolutionary revolt of the working masses, as insurrectionary bodies for the overthrow of British supremacy, will be the sole genuine seats of authority, elected directly in the factories, works, villages, etc., ensuring confiscation of the land and the satisfaction of the vital needs of the mass of the people. The Soviet Government alone will be capable of ensuring to national minorities their right to self-determination, including that of complete separation, and at the same time achieving the maximum unity in the ranks of the toilers of various nationalities, engaged in common revolutionary struggle against the enemies of the India revolution. …

Adopting these as its guiding principles, the CP of India advances the following main objects for the present stage of the Indian revolution.

2. Establishment of a Soviet Government. The realisation of the right of national minorities to self-determination including separation. Abolition of the native states. The creation of an Indian Federal Workers’ and Peasants’ Soviet Republic.

3. The confiscation without compensation of all the lands, forests and other property of the landlords, ruling princes, churches, the British Government officials and moneylenders, and handing over for use to the toiling peasantry. Cancellation of slave agreements and all the indebtedness of the peasantry to moneylenders and banks.

4. The 8-hour working day and the radical improvement of conditions of labour. Increase in wages and State maintenance for the unemployed.

The Communist Party of India will fight for these main demands, which express the interests of the mass of the people, and the achievement of which will create the conditions for and render possible further development in the direction of the building of a Socialist state of society in India. At the same time, with the object of developing the mass revolutionary struggle and revolutionary education of the mass of the toilers, the CP of India puts forward partial demands, the struggle for which will facilitate the mobilisation of the mass of the people in revolutionary insurrection for its emancipation.

Part – II

The fight for partial demands of the revolutionary movement.

The CP of India considers that the sole and historically tested means of winning independence, carrying out the agrarian revolution and achieving democratic reconstruction, is the path of the revolutionary struggle of the widest possible mass of the people, developing into a general national armed insurrection against the British exploiters and all their allies in our country.

The propaganda of non-violence of Gandhi, Nehru and the other leaders of the National Congress is intended to prevent a general national armed insurrection of the toiling masses against British rule. By his own confession in his autobiography, Gandhi took part in the armed suppression of the rising of the Zulu peasants in Africa and assisted the British robbers in their fight against the German capitalists for the right to exploit colonial peoples. Gandhi recruited Indian peasants into the British army and sent to their deaths hundreds of thousands of Indian workers and peasants in the interests of the British robbers. And today Gandhi tells the peasants and workers of India that they have no right to and must not revolt against their exploiters. He tells them this at the very time when the British robbers are making open war on the Indian people in the North West Province and throughout the country. …

This emancipation of India cannot be achieved by a terrorist movement. The supporters of the terrorist movement of our country do not see and do not believe in the struggle of the broad masses of the people, and do not understand the connection between the agrarian revolution, the struggle of the working class and the overthrows of British domination. They try by brave and single- handed terrorist acts to achieve victory over British imperialism.

While recognising the devotion and self-sacrifice of the terrorists in the cause of the national emancipation of India, the Communist Party declares that the road to victory is not the method of individual terror but the struggle and the revolutionary armed insurrection of the widest possible masses of the working class, the peasantry, the poor of the towns and the Indian soldiers, around the banner and under the leadership of the Communist Party of India.

The most harmful and dangerous obstacle to the victory of the Indian revolution is the agitation carried on by the “Left” elements of the National Congress, led by Jawaharlal Nehru, Bose, Ginwalls and others. Under the cloak of revolutionary phraseology, they carry on the bourgeois policy of confusing and disorganising the revolutionary struggle of the masses, and help the Congress to come to an understanding with British imperialism. Particularly blackguardly and harmful is the part played by the national reformists in the labour movement, in which they try in every possible way to substitute the methods of class collaboration for the method of class struggle, doing their best to bring the workers under the influence of the ideas and the organisations of the Indian and British exploiters. The treacherous part played by the National Congress as regards the peasantry has once again shown itself in the appeal of the “Left” Congress leaders to the British Governor-General of Bengal to send troops to crush the peasant revolts at Kishoreganj. In these circumstances some of the “Left” national reformists (supporters of Roy and others), who realise that the masses are becoming disillusioned in the Congress have cleverly put forward the advice to “win” the national Congress from within. Nominally their object is to revolutionise the Congress, in reality it is to restore the prestige of the Congress by replacing the old treacherous leaders who are no better than the old.

The exposure of the “Left” Congress leaders, who may again undertake to set up a new party or organisation like the former League of Independence, in order once again to bamboozle the mass of the Workers, is the primary task of our Party. Ruthless war on the “Left” national reformists is an essential condition if we are to isolate the latter from the workers and mass of the peasantry, and mobilise the latter under the banners of the Communist Party and the anti-imperialist agrarian revolution in India.

The Communist Party of India calls upon all the toilers to form a united front against the imperialists, the landlords, the moneylenders and the capitalists. The CP of India calls upon the Moslem and Indian workers and peasants not to be tricked by the cunning provocative methods of the British Government and the reactionary native exploiters, who set the toilers of different nationalities and religious beliefs against one another, and provoke conflicts between them. …

As one of the practical means of explaining to the toiling masses the exploiting and treacherous policy of the Congress leaders the CP of India recommends to its supporters to make use of their activity in the trade unions, municipal councils (Calcutta, Bombay etc.) and similar institutions. …

A. General Demands.

In order to develop mass revolutionary struggle and the political training of the people, the CP of India puts forward and fights for the following demands:

2. Immediate liberation of all political prisoners, including those who have committed acts of individual and mass violence.

3. Unlimited freedom of speech, conscience, press, meeting, strikes and association for the toilers and abolition of all anti-popular and anti-labour laws (Trades Dispute Act, the prohibition of picketing, the regulations for the deportation of revolutionary workers, press act, etc.).

4. The abolition of rank, caste, national and communal privileges, and the full equality of all citizens irrespective of sex, religion and race.

5. Complete separation of religion from the State, and the expulsion of the missionaries as direct agents of the imperialists, with confiscation of their property.

6. The election of judges and officials and their recall at any time on the demands of the majority of the electors.

B. Special Workers’ Demands.

… The CP of India calls upon all class-conscious workers to concentrate every effort on the creation of a revolutionary trade union movement. The CP of India deems it essential to organise mass trade unions based on factory committees, with the leadership elected directly by the workers and consisting of advanced revolutionary workers. The trade unions must become regularly functioning mass organisations, working in the spirit of the class struggle, and all efforts must be made to expel and isolate reformists of all shades, from the open agents of British capitalism such as Joshi, Chamanlal, Giri, etc. to the sham “Left” national reformists such as Bose, Ruikar, Ginwalla and other agents of the Indian bourgeoisie, who constitute a reactionary bloc for joint struggle against the revolutionary wing of the trade union movement. At the same time the CP of India works for the transformation of the All-India Trade Union Congress into a fighting All-India centre of the labour movement on a class basis.

I. The CP of India calls upon all its supporters and all class-conscious workers to help in organising factory committees in all factories, railways, docks, etc. throughout the country. In cases where owing to the victimisation of the employers or British authorities the factory committees have to work semi-legally, the CP advocates putting forward the demand for recognition of the factory committees as one of the principal demands in strikes movements. The CP of India calls for the country-wide organisation of workers’ defence detachments, both to defend workers’ strikes and demonstrations and to take part in the general revolutionary struggle.

II. The CP of India calls upon all class-conscious workers to help the Party to organise the movement and the struggle of the unemployed for regular relief at the expense of the State and the employers. It calls for the country-wide organisation of unemployed councils, demonstrations and joint struggle with the workers in industry for the partial demands of the unemployed — monthly unemployment benefit at the cost of living minimum, refusal to pay rent, free supply of fuel and food stuffs by the municipal authorities, etc.

III. Taking note of the semi-slave conditions of plantation and agricultural workers, the CP of India calls upon class-conscious workers to take part and assist in the organisation of trade unions of plantation and agricultural workers. The fight for complete abolition of all systems of serfdom, compulsory and contract labour, deprivation of rights and unprecedented exploitation of the agricultural proletariat is one of our main aims linked up closely with the aim of mobilising the broad masses of peasantry to fight imperialist and feudal exploitation, under the leadership of the working class.

IV. With the object of protecting the working class from physical and moral degeneration, and also in order to raise its capacity to fight for emancipation, the CP of India fights for :

2. Complete freedom of trade unions, demonstrations, picketing and strikes.

3. Equal pay for equal work for women, youths and men.

4. Complete abolition of compulsory contract labour and system of legal bondage of the workers.

5. A compulsory weekly rest period at full pay, and a paid annual holiday of 4 weeks for adults and 6 weeks for youths.

6. State insurance against unemployment, sickness, accidents, industrial diseases, old age, loss of working capacity, orphanage and compensation for disablement.

7. Establishment of a State minimum wage of 50 rupees a month, prohibition of the contract system and establishment by law of weekly payment of wages.

8. Prohibition of deductions from wages for any reason or purpose whatsoever (fines, bad work, etc.).

9. Introduction of properly organised factory inspection, workers elected members thereof, to supervise labour conditions in all factories employing hired labour.

10. The abolition of the system of hiring workers through jobbers, sarangs, etc., employment and dismissal of workers to take place through labour exchanges, controlled and supervised by the trade unions. The abolition of all caste and feudal customs and regulations within the factories. …

… The CP of India is definitely against the principle of arbitration and interference by capitalist arbitration courts. It emphasises most definitely that the sole means for winning any serious concessions on the part of the exploiters is resolute class struggle by strikes and mass revolutionary activities.

C. Peasant Demands

I. The CP of India fights for the confiscation without compensation of all land and estates, forests and pastures of the native princes, landlords, moneylenders and the British Government, and the transference to peasant committees for use by the toiling masses of the peasantry. The CP of India fights for the complete wiping out of the medieval system of landholding, to cleanse the whole of the land from the rubbish of the middle ages.

II. The CP of India fights for the immediate confiscation of all plantations and their transference to revolutionary committees elected by the plantation workers. The allotments to which the planters assign their contract workers and also the land not in cultivation, to be handed over to the labourers and poor peasants as their property. At the same time the CP of India is in favour of the nationalisation of large-scale mechanically equipped plantations and workshops connected therewith, for utilisation in the interests of the whole Indian people.

III. The CP of India fights for the immediate nationalisation of the whole system of irrigation, complete cancellation of all indebtedness and taxes, and the transference of the control and supervision of the work of irrigation to revolutionary peasant committees elected by the working peasantry.

IV. In order to disorganise British rule and maintain revolutionary pressure against it, the CP of India calls upon the peasantry and agricultural proletariat to engage in all kinds of political demonstrations and collective refusal to pay taxes and dues, or to carry out the orders and decisions of the government and its agents.

V. The CP of India calls for refusal to pay rent, irrigation charges or other exactions and refusal to carry out any labour services whatsoever (begar) for the landlords, native princes and their agents.

VI. The CP of India calls for refusal to pay debts and arrears to government, the landlords and the moneylenders in any form whatsoever.

VII. As a practical watchword for the campaign among the peasantry, and as a means of developing more political consciousness in the peasant movement, the CP of India calls for the immediate organisation of revolutionary peasant committees in order to carry on a fight to achieve all the revolutionary democratic changes required in the interests of emancipating the peasantry from the yoke of British imperialism and its feudal allies.

VIII. The CP of India calls for the independent organisation of the agricultural proletariat, particularly the plantation workers, and its amalgamation with the proletariat of the towns under the banner of the Communist Party, as well as its representation in the peasant committees. …

D. Emancipation of the Pariahs and the Slaves

… British rule, the system of landlordism, the reactionary caste system, religious deception and all the slave and serf traditions of the past throttle the Indian people and stand in the way of its emancipation. They have led to the result that in India, in the 20th century, there are still pariahs who have no right to meet with all their fellow men, drink from common wells, study in common schools etc.

Instead of putting an end once and for all to this shameful blot on the Indian people, Gandhi and the other Congress leaders call for the maintenance of the caste system, which is the basis and justification for the existence of the socially outcast pariahs.

Only the ruthless abolition of the caste system in its reformed, Gandhist variety, only the agrarian revolution and the violent overthrow of British rule, will lead to the complete social, economic, cultural and legal emancipation of the working pariahs and slaves.

The CP of India calls upon all the pariahs to join in the united revolutionary front with all the workers of the country against British rule and landlordism. … [and] not to give way to the trick of the British and reactionary agents who try to split and set one against the other the toilers of our country. …

E. The Struggle for the Interests of the Town and Petty Bourgeoisie

… The capitalist class and the National Congress, in their search for a compromise with imperialism, are betraying the interests not only of the workers and peasants but also of wide sections of the town petty bourgeoisie (artisans, street traders, etc.). …

… The CP of India fights for the cancellation of all the usury which has enslaved the poor people of the towns. The CP of India fights for the cancellation of all direct and indirect taxes, excise and other forms of taxation of wages and small earnings, which are ruining the artisans, street traders, employees, etc. It stands for the replacement of such taxes by a progressive income-tax on the capitalists, bond holders, banks, and inheritance. …

F. Emancipation of the Toiling Women

The toiling women of India are in a semi-servile condition under a double burden of the survivals of feudalism, economic, cultural and legal inequality. The toiling women have no right whatsoever to determinate their fate, and in many distiricts are forced to drag out their existence in purdah, under the veil, and without the right not only of participating in public affairs, but even of freely and openly meeting their fellow citizens and moving through the streets.

At the same time the exploitation and working conditions of the women workers are surely unheard-of in their brutality and sweated character. …

Noting that the present bourgeois national women’s organisation, the “All-India Women’s Conference” led by Sarojini Naidu, one of the leaders of the National Congress, is not carrying on a genuine struggle to emancipate women but in reality is cooperating with British imperialism, the CP of India calls upon the working masses of India to join the common revolutionary struggle of the toiling masses, under the leadership of the Communist Party for the overthrow of the social order and social system which give rise to the slave conditions of Indian women.

… It fights for the complete abolition of night work for women and the prohibition of underground work for women (in the coal mines) and in all branches harmful for females.

The CP of India fights for leave of absence from work at full rates of wages two months before and two months after child birth, with free medical aid, and for the establishment of creches in all factories and workshops employing women, at the expense of the employers, such creches to cover small children and infants-at-the-breast, with a special apartment for feeding. Nursing mothers to have their working day reduced to 6 hours.

G. Soldiers’ Demands

I. In the struggle for the emancipation of our country, the CP of India calls for the spreading of revolutionary propaganda among the soldiers and police, and the explanation of the necessity for their armed insurrection together with the toiling masses of the country, against British rule.

II. The Indian soldiers and police are socially in the main poor peasants, who have been forced to seek employment in the army by poverty, landlessness and hunger. The CP of India fights for the allotment of land to the soldiers equally with all the other toiling peasants. …

III. The CP of India calls upon its organisations and class-conscieus workers and revolutionaries to begin organising revolutionary groups among the soldiers. The aim of these groups must be to persuade and prepare the soldiers to take action in support of a general armed insurrection of the people for liberty, land and a Workers’ and Peasants’ Government. It is necessary to explain to the soldiers by concrete examples drawn from their daily lives (arbitrary actions by the officers, shooting down of demonstrations, workers’ strikes, etc., flagrant inequality of treatment of white and Indian soldiers — worse food, clothes, allowances etc.) that Indian soldiers are only a blind tool in the hands of the British robbers, who use them to maintain the national and social oppression of the toiling masses of our country.

IV. The CP of India calls upon its supporters to organise the ex-soldiers. …

V. The CP of India calls upon the class-conscious workers to organise fraternisation with Indian soldiers. …

H. Youth’s Demands

II. … The VCL of India must come forward as a political organisation which subordinates all forms of struggle and mass organisation — economic, cultural, sports, etc. — to the interests of the political struggle, …

IV. The CP of India calls upon the honest revolutionary youth to help in spreading political propaganda among the soldiers and police. The CP of India considers that the call of the “Left” nationalists to the soldiers to leave the army and take their discharge, in accordance with Gandhi’s philosophy of
non-violence, is a mistake. The task of genuine revolutionaries is to persuade the soldier, while staying in the army, to prepare and raise, when the time is ripe, the banner of armed insurrection and, shoulder to shoulder with the toiling people, to overthrow British rule.

V. With the object of protecting the toiling youth against physical and cultural degeneration, and in order to develop its revolutionary offensive for the national and social liberation of the toiling masses, the CP of India fights for:

(b) Universal free and compulsory education up to 16 in the national language of the pupil. Free feeding, clothing and supply of text-books to children at the expense of the state. Introduction of vocational training for youths at the expense of the state and the employers.

(d)State maintenance of unemployed youths at rates equivalent to the cost of living.

CONCLUSION

The Communist Party of India, putting forward its programme of demands of the Indian revolution, calls upon the toiling masses to rally under the revolutionary banner of the Party and carry on the struggle to the successful conquest of power and the establishment of the democratic dictatorship of the working class and the peasantry in the form of Soviets.

The CP of India declares that the successful solution of the problems facing the revolution against feudalism and for emancipation will open up the possibility, with the help of the international proletariat and the class offensive of the exploited masses of our country of the revolution developing through a number of stages into a proletarian revolution, thereby creating the requisite conditions for the development of our country on socialist lines, avoiding the further stage of domination of the capitalist system.

In this struggle the Indian people are not alone. They have an ally in the revolutionary worker of all countries in the world. … The crisis of the feudal and capitalist systems of exploitation in India is at present being combined with the world crisis, which leads to the great sharpening of all antagonisms, the approach of wars, and the rise of a new wave of revolutionary struggles.

The growing crisis is producing the growth of stubborn resistance and counter-offensive on the part of the international proletariat and the colonial peoples. The strength of the international revolution is growing. In one of the countries of the world, Soviet Russia, the working class has long ago overthrown the power of the exploiters and is successfully building up a socialist state of society. … The Soviet Union is a reliable ally of the colonial peoples, including the toilers of India. The toiling masses of India will receive the support of the revolutionary workers of all countries, particularly of the developing Chinese revolution. … [and of] the revolutionary workers of Great Britain, led by the British Communist Party, … In spite of all the devices of the imperialists and their reformist agents, the revolutionary front of the world proletariat and the colonial peoples is growing stronger and wider every day.

But to ensure the victory of the Indian revolution, there is required a Communist Party of the proletariat, the leader and organiser of the toiling masses of our country. The building of a centralised, disciplined, united, mass, underground Communist Party is today the chief and basic task long ago overdue, of revolutionary movement for the emancipation of our country.

The CP of India declares with pride, that it considers itself a part of the organised world Communist movement, a section of the Communist International. The CP of India calls upon all advanced workers and revolutionaries devoted to the cause of the working class to join the ranks of the Communist Party now being built, … In the conditions of British supremacy and terrorism, the Communist Party can exist and develop only as an underground Party, applying and utilising all forms of legal and illegal activities to develop its mass struggle and to win the toiling masses for the fight for the democratic dictator-ship of the working class and the peasantry. …

… In spite of all difficulties, sacrifices and partial defeats, in spite of all the attempts of the imperialists and the Indian bourgeoisie to separate the revolutionary movement of India from the international proletariat, the Communist Party will lead the struggle of the toiling masses to the complete overthrow of British rule and of the system of landlordism and serfdom in order thereafter together with the world proletariat, to march forward in the struggle to set up a Socialist system of society in our country and throughout the world.

Long Live The Independence of India !

Long Live The Working Class, The Leader of The Toiling Masses !

Long Live The Revolutionary Insurrection For Independence, Land And Bread!

Long Live The The Workers’ And Peasants’ Soviet Government !

Long Live The World Revolution !

3

Open Letter to the Indian Communists from The Communist Parties of China, Great Britain and Germany

(Abridged)

May, 1932.

Dear Comrades,

The revolutionary struggle of the toiling masses for their national and social liberation has reached a turning point. The national bourgeoisie which has betrayed the revolutionary people are trying their best to preserve their influence over the toiling masses, in order to ward off the approaching Indian revolution.

From the efforts, the energetic and self-sacrificing struggle and the correct policy of the Indian Communists it depends to a great extent: Whether the treacherous bourgeoisie will maintain its influence for a long time and will successfully carry out its counter-revolutionary job, or whether the working class, headed by the Communist Party of India, having isolated the national reformists, will lead the toiling masses of town and village to a victorious struggle for independence, land and the workers’ and peasants’ power.

The objective conditions and the growth of the class consciousness of the Indian proletariat testifies to the fact that the latter course has every chance of fulfilment provided the Indian Communists overcome their lagging behind in the formation of a mass All-Indian Communist Party; provided they, on the basis of the platform of action published by them and the experience of the past years will energetically and jointly undertake the formation of the Communist Party and organise, not in words but in deeds, the workers and peasants.

1. The co-relation of class forces

… Because of the sharpening of the economic crisis, the insignificant and temporary reduction of taxes in a few provinces has not in the least helped the position of the peasants. The burden of ruin, oppression and poverty which is preconditioned by the whole system of imperialist feudal-moneylending exploitation and is aggravated by the present decline of agricultural prices together with the actual increase in taxation and reaction is reaching an unprecedented height. In spite of the fact that the process of drawing the peasant masses into the struggle is proceeding unevenly, it has already assumed such a powerful character (guerilla warfare in Burma and Kashmir, struggles in UP, etc.), that on the one hand it has compelled the National Congress (which was negotiating an agreement with the imperialists) to continue playing longer than it wished its sham opposition towards Imperialism, in order to deceive the masses and disorganise the peasant struggle. And on the other hand it has forced the British Imperialists to hasten in the Use of barbarous forms of mass terror in order to break up the people’s movement.

On January 7,1932, the Bombay Chronicle was compelled to admit that — “a noteworthy feature of the peasant movement in the United Provinces is the fact that the peasants are becoming their own leaders … that the peasant movement to an ever increasing extent takes place at the initiative of the peasants themselves, and that have identified themselves with the Congress because they could not get assistance from other organisations.”

The leaders of the National Congress, Gandhi, Nehru, Nehru and Co, are compelled to admit in a number of speeches the fact that the anti-imperialist movement and the agrarian struggle are beginning more and more to come together. The terrified bourgeoisie are now trying to disorganise the peasants’ struggle and to hold back the peasant movement, so that it should be limited to a peaceful, submissive economic campaign for small reduction of taxes, postponement to pay the debts, etc. …

Dissatisfaction with the policy of the National Congress is likewise increasing among the petty-bourgeoisie in the towns (the increase of the wave of terrorist actions, increased interest of various elements in the terrorist movement towards working class movement and Marxism, speeches at student meetings in Calcutta, etc.) and is expressed to a still greater extent among the working masses.

… The events of the last few months (the Bombay demonstration against Gandhi, the Sholapur strike, etc.) show that the process of drawing the Indian proletariat into the economic and political struggle, accompanied by its (proletariat) liberation from the influence of the National Congress, is growing, and in spite of the yet existing uneven character, is beginning more and more to assume an all-Indian character. All the facts show that in most cases, the workers themselves begin the strikes and that among the workers, not only in Bombay but also in other places, there is growing a stratum of active workers, who are capable not only of becoming the cement and the leaders of a mass evolutionary trade union movement, but with energetic work carried on by the Communists, can become the mass basis of a strong, working class, illegal Indian Communist Party.

Some comrades are inclined to think that the working class movement entered a period of decline and depression as the result of the defeat of the Bombay strike in 1929. Such a point of view is entirely wrong. It is true that the defeat of the strike (which took place as the result of the absence of a CP and neglect of the task of spreading the strike to Ahmedabad and Sholapur), the growth of unemployment in the first half of 1930, the terror of the employers and the police and particularly the insufficient works of the revolutionary wing of the trade union movement had undoubtedly a bad effect on the position of the GKU. But this does not at all justify the theory of decline, because it was exactly in the very years of 1930-31 that (1) there was a final split of the Communist groups from “Left” national reformism and for the first time there really commenced the formation of an illegal Communist Party; (2) the working masses took a most active part in all political activities, to the point to open fights against the police and the troops (Sholapur, etc.); (3) the backward sections of the proletariat of the country, Bangalore, Cawnpore, Baroda, etc., who had been lagging behind, began to be drawn in the struggle; (4) there took place a number of independent political activities of the working masses and the working class by its methods of struggle put a specific imprint on the whole mass movement. The advanced sections of the proletariat commenced an open struggle against the National Congress. The historical demonstration of Bombay workers on the day of Gandhi’s departure to London and the Sholapur demonstration of textile strikers are very remarkable instances of such a struggle against the influence of the National Congress.

… It may be stated accurately that in India “The strength of the present movement lies in the awakening of the masses (chiefly the industrial proletariat), and its weakness lies in the insufficient consciousness and initiative of the revolutionary leaders.” (Lenin).

The general picture of the Communist movement is not satisfactory. On the one hand there is a tremendous development of the working class movement which is unprecedented in the past. On the other hand, the Communist Party as yet consists of a small number (though the number is increasing) of weak groups, often isolated from the masses, disconnected with each other, politically not united and in some places not clearly differentiated from national reformism, adopting a conciliatory policy towards it. Instead of a struggle for a united all-Indian Communist Party, we find localism, provincialism, self-isolation from the masses, etc., which, though it could be understood to some extent in 1930, now represents the main danger to the revolutionary, proletarian movement.

The lagging behind of the Communist vanguard must be rapidly and most decisively overcome. This is the first and the most important task for all those honest Communist revolutionaries who stand by the platform of action of the CPI, and are faithful to the cause of the Indian and world proletariat.

2. Communists and the struggle for Independence

The biggest mistake made by Indian Communists consists of the fact that in reality they stood aside from the mass movement of the people against British imperialism. In spite of the fact that the documents of the Communist movement have spoken about this mistaken policy, no change has yet taken place and self-isolation from the struggle for independence still exists.

In June 1930 in one of the documents of the Bombay organisation it is, said :

“The result of the policy of actual withdrawal from the political struggle, lack of attempts to lead the masses, to organise them, to isolate the reformist elements proved to be harmful in regard to the growth of the CP itself.”

The self-isolation of Communists from the anti-imperialist mass struggle as a movement alleged to be purely a Congress movement, has created confusion in the Communist movement. It helped to increase among Communists-intellectuals the disbelief in the strength of the proletariat and the growth of its class- consciousness. It has hindered the development of the process of differentiation in the revolutionary movement, has hindered the isolation of “Left” national-reformists from the working masses and objectively strengthened the positions of the bourgeois National Congress.

… Thus the liberation of the proletariat from the influence of the treacherous bourgeoisie and conversion of the proletariat from an active political force into the leading force with the hegemony of the people’s movement can be brought about at the present time by the exposure of the bourgeois National Congress and its “Left” wing, Bose, Kandalkar, Roy, etc., as the betrayers of the struggle for independence and can be realised only if the Communist Party takes a most energetic part in the struggle for independence on the basis of an irreconcilable struggle against the national reformists.

This participation in the anti-imperialist movement is closely connected and interwoven with the energetic participation of Communists in the everyday struggle for the economic interests of the working masses, with the most energetic support, organisation and development of the peasant struggle, the agrarian revolution and the attraction to its own side of all revolutionary-democratic elements who are prepared to struggle against British imperialism.

The pre-rcquisite for a correct policy for Communists in the anti-imperialist movement is a definite sharp clear and uncompromising struggle and exposure of the National Congress and especially the “Left” national-reformists, first of all its special variety — the group of Roy-Kandalkar.

However, while struggling against “Left” national reformism it is incorrect to separate ourselves from the mass movement of the people who appear to be under the leadership of the National Congress. A distinction must be made between the bourgeois Congress leadership and those sections of the workers, peasants and revolutionary elements of the town petty-bourgeoisie who not understanding the treacherous character of the National Congress followed it, correctly seeing in the domination of British imperialism the basis of their slavery.

The National Congress was able to preserve its leadership over the masses of town poor, workers, student youth, artisans, etc. (who on their own initiative participated in a number of armed struggles with the police force of British imperialism), not by its positive political programme which under vague ‘radical’ promises conceals its bourgeois-feudal contents, but only on the basis of assurances of its loyalty to the independence movement, utilising the hatred of the people toward bloodthirsty robber imperialism and the still existing illusions of a “United National Front”.

In order to isolate the National Congress and all the “left” national reformists from the toiling masses, in order to help the separation of the forces of revolution and counter-revolution and to establish the hegemony of the proletariat in the struggle of the people, the Indian Communists must take the most energetic part in the anti-imperialist movement and must be in the forefront in all activities, demonstrations and clashes of the toiling masses with the imperialists, coming forward as the organisers of the mass struggle, everywhere and at all times, exposing openly and by concrete examples the treachery of the bourgeois National Congress and its “left” wing. It is necessary to participate in all mass demonstrations, organised by the Congress, coming forward with our own Communist slogans and agitation; support all the revolutionary student demonstrations, be at the forefront in the clashes with the police, protesting against all political arrests, etc., constantly criticising the Congress leaders, especially “left”, and calling on the masses for higher forms of struggle, setting before the toiling masses ever more concrete and ever more revolutionary tasks.

The experience of the Girni Kamgar Union confirms the correctness of this analysis. The Kandalkar-Roy group was able to split the GKU because paying lip service of their loyalty to the revolutionary struggle for independence they appealed to the workers to support the united national front and urged the workers to join the bourgeois National Congress, describing it as a people’s organisation, helping it thus to disorganise the revolutionary struggle of the toiling masses. It was only by use of “anti-imperialist” phraseologies, utilising the hatred of the working masses towards the imperialists, that the national reformists were able to attract considerable sections of the workers to their side.

But if the existence of “United National Front” illusions played its part in maintaining the influence of the National Congress, the self-isolation of the Communists objectively assisted the reformists and retarded the process of the breaking away of the workers from the bourgeois National Congress. The treacherous Roy-NN Joshi-Kandalkar group tries to hide its counter-revolutionary essence and its affiliation to the national reformist camp by the old and well-known bourgeois method, charging the Communists with ultra-radicalism and sectarianism.

This charge of sectarianism is nothing else but accusation of the Communists for their Bolshevist irreconcilability to national reformism, for their revolutionary hatred of the imperialist and feudal system of exploitation, for their persistent and continuous preparation and mobilisation of the toiling masses for the revolutionary overthrow of imperialist rule.

The treacherous Roy-Kandalkar group in their appeal to the Trade Union Congress in Calcutta, in the leaflet issued in Bombay against Bradley and the Meerut prisoners, by the condemnation of the position of the revolutionary wing at the Nagpur Congress of Trade Unions, by the organisation of a reactionary bloc with the Joshi-Giri-Bakhale group, by their disruptive work on the rail-roads, by their struggle against the general strike, the platform of action of the CPI, etc., only proved once more that they are agents of the bourgeoisie in the labour movement, that they are carrying on a policy of subordination of the working class to the bourgeoisie, that they are hindering the differentiation and break of the toiling masses with the national reformism and are disorganising the revolutionary struggle of the workers and peasants for independence, land and bread.

In phrases pledging their support to the Comintern, the Roy-Kandaikar-Joshi group in deeds are the worst enemies of the international revolutionary proletariat and the Indian anti- imperialist and agrarian revolution.

… the Communists must also sharply combat all ideas of those comrades who unconsciously come to self-isolation from the mass anti-imperialist struggle through their desire to preserve the cadres in order to gain the time for building the Party.

Such a line is harmful and shortsighted The preservation of cadres, the guarantee of continuity and the formation of an illegal Party is an extremely necessary task. However, the fulfillment of u must be achieved not through self -isolation from the anti-imperialist struggle but only by the correct combination of illegal and legal methods of work and organisation and the most energetic drawing into our ranks and developing of new cadres from workers and trustworthy revolutionary youth.

3. The struggle against the National Congress and the petty-bourgeoisie

The increase of the dissatisfaction of the broad masses with the policy of the National Congress (negotiations in London, etc.), directly connected with the deepening of the crisis, the offensive of imperialism and the further revolutionising of the toiling masses has compelled the leaders of the National Congress to follow the path of new “Left” manoeuvres in order to strengthen their influence. … These manoeuvres of the bourgeoisie show the process of ferment and disappointment which is spreading among the toiling masses and confirms the correctness of the platform of action of the CPI where it speaks of the necessity of the sharpest differentiation, criticism and exposure of “Left” national reformism, including its foremost detachment, the group of Roy, as the necessary pre-requisite for the mobilisation of the toiling masses for a revolutionary struggle and the creation of a mass CP.
Struggling against the bourgeois National Congress, some comrades mistakenly identify the bourgeoisie with the petty-bourgeoisie, mechanically contrasting the “class” interests of the proletariat with the independence movement as a whole, while other Communists, fighting against this mistaken conception, forget about the bourgeoisie, forget about the instability, the waverings and hesitations of the petty-bourgeoisie, sometimes in practice join with or follow the latter, thus objectively subordinating the proletariat to the leadership of the national bourgeoisie.

For example, it was a mistake when the leaders of the trade union movement stated (see Bombay Chronicle) that the split in Calcutta is a matter for the workers, affects only the trade union movement, is connected only with the economic struggle and has no connection whatsoever with the “patriotic” feelings of the nationalists. The struggle inside the working class against the bourgeoisie for the majority of the working class is of decisive importance for the whole of the anti-imperialist movement. The split and issues raised in Calcutta are also an important stage in the anti-imperialist struggle and the differentiation of the forces of revolution and counter- revolution. The organisation of an All-India centre of the trade union movement, based on the principles of the class struggle must serve, in spite of the mistakes made, not only for the class consolidation of the proletariat, but must* also help in the mobilisation of the peasantry and the revolutionary strata of the petty-bourgeoisie around the proletariat and its Communist vanguard. To do this it is necessary to distinguish between the revolutionary patriotism of the toiling masses suffering from national oppression and the treacherous counter-revolutionary pseudo “patriotism” of the bourgeoisie. We must learn to prove that that portion of the trade union Congress which followed Bose, Kandalkar, Roy and co. had carried on and is carrying on a struggle against the “patriotism”, against the anti-imperialist fight of the revolutionary people. Those who separate the class interests of the proletariat from the struggle for independence in practice drive the toiling masses and the revolutionary sections of the petty-bourgeoisie into the arms of the National Congress and the “Left” wing, strengthen the position of the bourgeoisie, instead of rallying the toiling masses around the Communist Party and fighting for the hegemony of the proletariat.

A mistake of an opposite character is the statement of some comrades that the anti-imperialist movement of 1930-31 can be described as a movement of the town petty-bourgeoisie. From the view point of these comrades, the proletariat and peasantry as the basic forces of the Indian revolution disappear, and the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie with its still greater influence over the masses is forgotten. The tactics of the Communists as a result are adapted to the town petty-bourgeoisie and hence criticism of the National Congress and the “Left” national reformists is toned down. Among the supporters of this view there arose at the end of 1930, under the influence of the waverings of the town petty-bourgeoisie, a theory of “reaction” in the working class movement (see “Railwayman”, November 1930). This theory incorrectly explained the situation of 1930, and would be wrong for the present period. Is it correct as “Railwayman” states that the working class in 1930 came into motion under the influence of the dissatisfied petty-bourgeoisie and fell under its leadership?

It is not correct. In 1928-29 the proletariat by its strikes, by its struggle against the Simon and Whitley Commissions, by its revolutionary position at the Nagpur TU Congress, etc. aroused the petty-bourgeoisie to the anti-imperialist struggle. In 1930 the most active element in all mass actions in the towns (Bombay, Sholapur, Calcutta, Madras, etc.) was the working class. In many cases the advanced sections of the workers spontaneously took the initiative into their hands, drawing over the students and thi city poor to their side (Calcutta, etc.). …

That which the author of the article called “reaction” in reality meant that among the workers there was a growing discontent with the treacherous policy of the National Congress, that the illusions of the “United National Front” had begun to disappear and a drift of the masses away from the National Congress had commenced. The absence of the CP hinders this process and makes it possible for the enemies of the working class to bring demoralisation into the ranks of the proletariat. It is from this point of view, without throwing the mistakes of revolutionary leaders on to the workers, that we should attentively consider the counter-revolutionary speech of Ruikar and the resolution adopted by the Nagpur textile trade union in January 1932. Speaking of the growing disbelief of the workers in the leaders of the National Congress, Ruikar called on the workers not to support any political party whatever but to carry on only an economic struggle, and persuaded the Nagpur textile union to pass a resolution not to take any further part in the national movement and to restrict themselves merely to the trade union struggle. (Bombay Chronicle, January 14).

… The position of the comrades who tried to secure unity with Kandalkar was entirely wrong because instead of raising questions of principle, the struggle against national reformism, they raised the question of persons, forgetting that the positions of groups and persons always reflect the interests of definite classes, and thus these comrades objectively have been helping the National Congress. The point of view of those comrades who think that criticism of the “Left” national reformists in the trade unions will lead to the isolation of the CP is wrong. On the contrary, if criticism is taken to the masses, the Communists will only strengthen their influence and win over the masses to their programme. We must catch the “Left” national reformists at their words, must expose before the masses their phrases appealing to the people comparing them with their deeds, showing that (he first and smallest test was the fact that instead of fighting against the imperialists they went to the Round Table Conference, instead of helping the peasants they helped the imperialists to collect taxes and now they are disorganising the no-rent movement, instead of supporting the workers they sabotage the general strike, instead of a revolutionary struggle they preach counter-revolutionary non- violence and submission, instead of supporting the revolutionary workers they split the Trade Union Congress in Calcutta and made an agreement with the Joshi and Giri group, the open agents of the imperialists, etc. Therefore, we must consider as incorrect the fact that the proletarian revolutionaries, while struggling against the national reformists at the Calcutta TU Congress, did not come out simultaneously with a special declaration against the Sen-Gupta group, thereby hindering the differentiation and the struggle against national reformism. The struggle against national reformism and still more against its dangerous variety the Roy-Kandalkar-VN Joshi group serves as a base and is connected with the overcoming of the two incorrect points of view which have appeared in the process of the formation of the Communist movement. One of these consists of passive resistance to the extensive recruiting of revolutionary workers into the ranks of the party. And the other consists of glossing over the class character of the Communist Party. It is wrong to propose to the revolutionary petty-bourgeois organisations to fuse with the Communist Party. An alliance of the proletariat with the peasantry is the basis of the strategy of the Indian CP, but while fighting for the leadership of the anti-imperialist and the general peasant struggle, we must not forget for a minute about the separate organisation of the town and village proletariat and the formation of a complete independent class Party — the Communist Party. While fighting in alliance with the peasantry, the Indian proletariat must preserve its class independence; …

4. The peasants and the movement for non-payment of taxes

… The present “no-rent and no-tax” movement has a spontaneous character. The task of the Communists at the present time is: following the policy as outlined in the platform of action of the CPI to start actually the organisation of a mass movement for the non-payment of taxes, rent and debts, drawing into this campaign all revolutionary democratic elements and giving it the anti-imperialism character of the struggle for independence. Only in this way, proving by concrete examples how the “radical” words of the National Congress differ from their disorganising actions, will it be possible to isolate the national reformists and develop a powerful peasant movement. Besides direct agitational and organisational work by the Party and the utilisation of the industrial workers connected with the villages, it is necessary to call on the revolutionary elements of the rank and file followers of the National Congress, the youth leagues, the peasant organisation, etc., to undertake the organisation of a country-wide movement for the non-payment of taxes and rent, in spite of the National Congress and over its head, organising peasant committees, self-defence groups and establishing contacts with the town workers.

It is not correct to counter-pose the slogan of the general strike to the mass movement for non-payment of taxes and debts, civil disobedience and the boycott. While supporting this mass movement, the Communists must win the leadership of it, and exposing the treachery of the National Congress by concrete examples develop and guide it into genuinely revolutionary channels.

5. The slogan of the general strike and the struggle for the majority of the proletariat

At the end of 1930 some revolutionists (see article of “Railwayman”) took a negative attitude to the slogan of the general strike. These comrades explained their negative attitude claiming that the workers were not yet sufficiently class-conscious and that most of the trade unions opposed this slogan.

… The author of the article confused the question of the slogan of the general strike as a tactical line for Communists with the question of the date for calling the strike, which depends on a number of concrete factors. We must not, under the excuse of disagreement with the selection of a date for the strike, carry on a struggle against the tactical line of the revolutionary proletariat. “To consider the mood of the workers is important when to choose the moment of action but not for deciding the tactical line of action of the working class.” (Lenin).

It is also incorrect to consider the slogan of a general strike according to the attitude of the trade union leaders. The majority of the Indian trade unions are bureaucratic not mass organisations, acting against the interests of the working masses, without contact with them. At the present time the strength of these reformist trade unions is the result of the weak activity of the proletarian revolutionaries, of dis-organisation of the workers’ ranks and the fact that the national reformists utilise the anti-imperialist sentiment of the working class. It is useful to recollect the experience of Bombay in 1928 and the rapid breaking up of the textile “Union” of Joshi & Co.

When considering the slogan of the general strike we must not mistake the attitude of the reformist leaders for the real sentiments of the working class. This is a gross mistake.

In order to break down the disorganising influence and work of the reformists, it is necessary not to withdraw the slogan of the general strike, but on the contrary transfer the struggle for it to the rank and file, to the masses, exposing the reformists and organising the workers.

… The development of the strike movement places before the Communists the task of forming mass trade unions, factory committees, and the necessity to combine the battles for the everyday interests with the political struggle. The revolutionary TU movement has had a number of individual successes, the strike at Sholapur and Bombay, the calling of a conference of textile workers with the participation of 400 delegates from 60 factories, the strengthening of its position among the railwaymen, the growth of the workers’ press, etc.

However, the weakness of the GKU the loss of the leadership of the strike at the “Madhowji Dharamsi” factory, the loss of the leadership in the tramway union, etc. also show that the Communists disdain the everyday work in the factories and trade unions, do not build up groups of active workers, do not form Communist fractions, do not carry on sufficient everyday organisational and agitational work. It is only by leading and defending the interests of the workers in large and small struggles constantly and every day, in attack and defence, that the Communist Party can win the unbreakable confidence of the working class and lead it to the decisive battle against the exploiting classes.

It is time to get rid of the traditions of the past in the trade unions, the traditions of bureaucratic methods of work from above, the division into leaders and rank and file, and to start to form mass trade unions with elected management committees, consisting of workers from the bench, regularly functioning and in contact with the working masses, boldly promoting workers, supporting them and in every way developing their initiative and self-reliance.

We must carry on energetic work among the workers who are following the reformist trade unions. It is a great mistake to continue the practice of self-isolation from workers’ meetings and the mass trade unions which are under the influence of the reformists. Communists must always take part in them and carry on work among the workers, urging them to join the united fighting front of the proletariat.

During strikes and other economic and political actions of the workers, it is necessary to propose to the workers who follow the reformists to help the general struggle, rake part in the rank and file unity committees, defend the workers’ demands, etc. and thus nor in words but in deeds fight for the unity of the workers, exposing at the same time the reformists.

At the same time it is necessary to change the passive attitude of the Communists to the question of the All-Indian trade union movement and repudiate the special theory that “the trade union Congress is not something living and concrete for the workers”. In this, as in the other questions, there is shown lack of faith in the working class and local tasks are counter-posed to all-Indian tasks, the GKU is counter-posed to the trade union Congress.

Such counter-posing is very harmful. While developing a hundred times more our activity for strengthening the GKU and converting it into an All-Indian textile union (including Sholapur, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, etc.), it is necessary completely to dp away with a negative attitude towards the Aft-Indian trade union movement and begin to form mass trade unions all over the country in the coal, steel and jute industry, the plantations and the rail-roads, attracting to our side the workers of the reformist trade unions.

After the split of the Calcutta trade union Congress, the revolutionary wing did nothing to form a mass trade union movement while the national reformists are carrying on a “unity” campaign (i.e. disorganisation of the revolutionary proletariat), organised a number of All-Indian campaigns (“Labour Day”, etc.), formed a textile federation, seized the initiative on the rail-roads, formed provincial trade union councils, etc.

Even now the revolutionary trade union movement is in a position to send a number of groups of active workers to various centres in the country so as to start work among the rank and file workers. …

6. The struggle for an all-Indian party

The biggest gain of the proletarian movement, the greatest move forward is the fact that the advanced workers and revolutionaries have entirely separated from the National Congress and commenced to form an illegal Communist Party. The idea of an illegal CP has already been adopted and is beginning to be carried out.

However, the development of the Indian Communist movement is being blocked by the state of discord, separate existence of the Party groups and connected with it a number of mistakes enumerated above, without overcoming of which the movement cannot develop further normally.

If the period of isolated circles might have been considered to be inevitable in 1930 and at the beginning of 1931, at the present time such a position must be considered as extremely harmful and dangerous to the further development of the Communist movement.

… It must be recognised that the Party organisation has not carried on a correct line, and instead of a struggle for the Party it has in reality taken the line of provincialism. Instead of helping the local groups, it has taken up the position of self-limitation and reducing the whole Party merely to a local organisation not linked up with other local organisations. Instead of rousing and organising the ideological struggle for the Party, widely explaining and discussing all the questions of principle of the movement (for which purpose it is necessary in the shortest possible time to create an illegal printed organ of the Central Committee and legal newspapers), the Party organisation was not even able to continue the publication of the legal Marxist paper of an all-Indian importance. The absence of such illegal and legal papers (and its substitution by the trade union press does not save the position) not only drove all disagreements deep inside, hindering the working out of a united Party line, but it played a tremendous negative role in the formation of the Communist Party, strengthening of contacts between the various districts, development of the class struggle against the imperialists and the bourgeoisie, and winning of the workers and the revolutionary youth to the side of the Communist Party. Revolutionary newspapers are appearing everywhere in the country (in Calcutta, Madras, Punjab, etc.), trying to preach Marxism and defend the proletarian point of view. However, the absence of an illegal (and a legal) Party press makes it exceedingly difficult to influence them, to struggle against confusion, discord and gross mistakes, hinders the working out of a united Communist line and the establishment of unity of views and methods of struggle. It is necessary to understand firmly the teachings of Lenin on the role of a central Party paper as an agitator and organiser of the masses and the Party. This is particularly important for the present period of the Indian Communist movement.

… The existence of the Party as a number of isolated groups brings about complaints that there are no forces, no comrades available, that it is impossible to cope with the great tasks facing the revolutionary movement. Hence we often find passivity, despondency, mutual disputes, deviations of all kinds, sectarianism and an opportunist attitude to national reformism, on the basis of which the possibility of splits not on a principle basis becomes very easy. However, this complaint about the absence of forces is contradicted by thousands of facts of every day life which show that among the workers and the revolutionary youth there are thousands of active fighters sympathetic to the CP.

It is necessary to come out decisively for an All-Indian CP. While increasing in every way, hundreds of times, local work (especially in Calcutta, etc.) it is necessary at the same time somewhat to move the centre of gravity of Party work to the All- Indian activity and begin to build the Party, carrying on the struggle for a common political Me, creating a net of local Party organisations, developing the sense of responsibility, Party feeling and discipline, encouraging local initiative, and courageously drawing into our ranks workers and those revolutionary intellectuals who are true to the working class cause. …

… The leading organs of the Party and the kernel of the Party organisations must be in an illegal position and that mixing the conspirative and open apparatus of the Party organisation is fatal for the Party and plays into the hands of the Government provocation. While developing the illegal organisation in every way, measures must be taken for preserving and strengthening the conspirative kernel of the Party organisation. For the purpose of all kinds of open activity (in the press, meetings, leagues, trade unions, etc.), special groups and commissions etc. should be formed which, working under the leadership of Party committees, should under no circumstances injure the existence of illegal nuclei.

To sum up : the slogan of an All-Indian illegal, centralised Communist Party, ideologically and organisationally united, a true section of Comintern, fighting for the platform of action of the CPI and the programme of the Communist International must become the central slogan for gathering and forming the Party and for the struggle against waverings, against a tendency of keeping to isolated circles, against toning down the struggle against national reformism and opportunist sectarianism, all of which hinder the victory of the working class.

Conclusion

… There can be no greater crime than if the Communists (having their platform of action of the CPI and if they agree with the present letter) instead of struggle for great historical aims of the Indian and world proletariat, will follow the path of unprincipled factional struggle, fractions and personal groupings. Unprincipled factional struggle will play into the hands of the British imperialist. True Communist groups must put the interests of the proletariat above everything else, direct all their efforts towards the rapid formation of the Communist Party, settling all disputed questions within the framework of the Communist International and if necessary with its assistance.

The Communists of the whole world do not doubt that, in spite of their present weakness, inexperience and certain isolation, the Indian Communists will show sufficient Bolshevist firmness, courage and decisiveness to come out on the broad all-Indian arena of struggle for the Party — the leader and organiser of the Indian revolution.

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA.

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF GERMANY.

4

The Indian Revolution And Our Task

Comrades,

We are passing through one of the most critical periods in the history of India. The poverty and distress of the Indian people have surpassed all limits, the tables of the most wanton cruelty and exploitation ever recorded in history pale into insignificance before the cruel oppression and exploitation which have become the daily fate of the Indian masses. The price of foodstuff and crops have gone ridiculously down which show that the producers, i.e., the peasantry, cannot realise even the cost of production by selling their produce. … The condition of the working class is no better. Hundreds of thousands have been discharged from services, rationalisation by means of huge cuts of ridiculously low wages, forced leaves etc. have become the order of the day and even now all the industries are belching forth armies of unemployed whose only provision is to die in the street. The pauperised intelligentsia of the towns and cities are in the same condition. …

The National Congress cannot be the leaders of the Indian revolution.

As we said in our manifesto of December 23rd, 1931, the state of national struggle is nothing less than a tragedy. The peasantry is rising up in open revolt in many places, the workers are coming out in spontaneous strikes, the petty bourgeoisie are manifesting their great unrest and dissatisfaction by repeated terrorist actions. In fact, we are presented with the best opportunity for launching a decisive struggle for independence — yet there is no coordination among the isolated struggles, there is no clear cut policy, there is the greatest confusion regarding our goal and our method. This is due to counter-revolutionary activities of the Indian bourgeoisie and their organisation, the Indian National Congress. The Congress has openly declared itself against the peasantry and in favour of the blood sucking zamindars and landlords. For example Gandhi speaking about the aim of the Congress said “Let me warn you against listening to the advice if it has reached you that you have no need to pay Zamindars any rent at all. … We (Congressmen) do not speak to injure the Zamindars” (Vide Statesman, May 24,1931). …

Against imperialism also it has shown the most cowardly compromising and vacillating attitude. Moved by the rising discontent and open revolt of the masses (the uprising at Peshawar, Sholapur, Mid-napore etc.) it had to carry on the policy of Civil Disobedience in 1930, but it was itself afraid of the violent, objective revolutionary force of the masses which grew out of the timid, passive Civil Disobedience movement. So as soon as British Imperialism beckoned to it the Congress leaders flocked like tame dogs to that oppressive representative of the British Government — Lord Irwin — and signed a pact with him in 1931, without waiting for the verdict of people. We ask you friends, did we gain anything by that pact ? …

Non-violence is poison for the masses, but terrorism cannot succeed

The Congress stands for non-violence. This they have to for, otherwise, mass violence will sweep away British Imperialism and along with it the interrelated classes of Zamindars and merchants whose interests are the interests of Congress. … When the peasants of Chauri-Chaura rose up in revolt against the British Government, the Congress was alarmed and Gandhi passed his notorious resolution at Bardoli, repudiating the masses and calling off the movement for he feared that once the revolutionary force in the masses were roused, it will spread like contagion and win complete independence for the workers and peasants.

Yes, violence is necessary and armed revolution is the only way for India’s national emancipation. But here we are constrained to admit that the path followed by our terrorist friends cannot succeed. The terrorist movement has no connection with the broad masses of the people, the workers and the peasants, and as such it is foolish to suppose that a few isolated attempts will destroy British Imperialism. No, such a movement is too weak. In Ireland the IRA, which made some use of terrorist [methods] was not primarily a terrorist body — it was the organised vanguard of an armed nation in revolt and its methods of struggle were not [so] much terrorism as guerilla warfare. It had a popular agrarian programme which ensured the support of most of the rural people. Even so, it was only partially successful. In other countries terrorism has always failed and in India also, in spite of great sufferings and sacrifices for many years the terrorists have failed to achieve anything.

Dear terrorist friends! We are not crying you down like the Congress leaders who, terrified by the ordinances and government repression, openly denounce you and all violent means. We know and preach that violence is necessary and we appreciate the immense sacrifices which you have made. We fully understand that dissatisfied with the prevailing economic condition and disappointed by the timid and counter-revolutionary Congress programme you, in your zeal for the cause of revolution, have reported to terrorist tactics. We only appeal to you to get a clear vision about the path and the goal of the Indian Revolution, to preach for the cause of the violent Indian Revolution among the masses of India under the leadership of the Communist Party of India, to rouse the masses into an armed revolt. That alone is the way to success.

Non-violence cannot succeed — terrorism has never succeeded — but our comrades in the USSR have shown what communism can do. They have established the authority of the proletariat, freed the country from the Czar’s despotism, broken down the open and secret resistances of British, French, German, American and Japanese imperialism freed the Czar’s colonies, educated the illiterate masses and set up a new socialist order in which the exploitation of man by man has totally ceased. When the whole world is plunged into deep distress and economic disorder due to the crisis brought in by imperialism, our comrades in the USSR are building up gigantic industries, have given work and bread to every man and woman in the state [and] are marching triumphantly towards their goal — the socialist society. So, while other methods have failed, Communism has succeeded. Then, as the other methods have been tried in India and that without success, communism must also be given its chance and it will surely bring in victory.

Communism is not, as some interested persons would have you believe, a thing imported from Russia. It is a theory growing out of the condition of the oppressed and exploited in all lands and as regards these things India has only too much of them. Communism for India is a thing adapted to the requirements of the Indian people and the process of evolution of Indian Society, but basically both these things are of the same character in all lands.

The Communists do not profess to bring in a Socialist Society in India at once. The opportunists and self-seekers might have told you that the communists want immediately to establish the Dictatorship of the proletariat in India. No, this is a downright falsehood. While maintaining that socialism is the ultimate goal of the Indian Society and while recognising that the Dictatorship of the Indian Proletariat is a stepping stone to that stage, the Communist Party of India puts forth clearly that the coming Indian revolution shall be a bourgeois democratic revolution, that the immediate aim of the revolution is to establish the Federated Soviet Republic of the Workers’ and Peasants’ of India and not the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. Any sincere revolutionary will agree with the Communist Party of India in declaring that the following are the fundamental and immediate demands of the Indian national revolution:

2. Establishment of a Federal Soviet Republic of the Workers and Peasants of India. Right of national minorities to self determination, including separation. Abolition of the native States.

3. The confiscation without compensation of all the land, forest and other property of landlords, ruling princes, churches, temples, mosques, the British Government officials and moneylenders, and handing over for use to the toiling peasantry. Cancellation of slave agreements and all the indebtedness of the peasantry to money-lenders and banks.

4. The eight hour working day and all the radical improvements in the conditions of labour. Increase ia wages and state maintenance for the unemployed.

The working class shall lead the Indian revolution

The bourgeois National Congress is not fighting for the masses, not even its so-called “Left” Section. The representatives of the “left” — Jawaharlal, Bose — are even worse than the right and its representative Gandhi, for the latter is, at least frank in his confession that he is against the peasants and the workers. The former sound empty phrases and try to confuse the issues, Jawaharlal, who after 3 or 4 days’ sojourn at Moscow suddenly turned a socialist and who emphatically declared at the Calcutta Congress that “the spirit oozes out of me when I think that I am fighting for Dominion Status”, meekly supported Dominion Status at Lahore and Karachi and Bose and others of the so-called left followed suit! Dear comrades, did we fill the prisons, suffer terrible repression for Dominion Status ? …

The historic task of leading the Indian revolution to victory, of establishing the Workers’ and Peasants’ Soviet republic in India and of establishing the Socialist order of Society through the Dictatorship of the Proletariat devolves upon the working class of India — the most revolutionary class. It is best fitted for the task, for it has no chains of property to bind it down, and it has everything to gain by the revolution. …

And its vanguard is the Communist Party of India

The Communist Party of India is the vanguard of the Indian working class. It has grown and will grow stronger out of the struggles of the workers of India, it is a part of the Indian working class, it gives expression to the need which the working class feels in the course of its struggles for a leading fighting party. … It prides itself in the fact that it is a section of the Communist International, that is marching shoulder to shoulder with the proletariat of all lands for the world revolution, for the emancipation of mankind.

The workers’ and peasants’ soviet republic

Experiences of Russia and China have shown that the Soviet form of the state is the natural form of state for the masses. All parliamentary states, though they profess to be democratic, are in reality democracy for the few, for the big capitalists, for finance capital. The great majority of the people, the workers and the peasants, are repressed and persecuted by them, the fundamental right of better living is denied to the majority by these states, while they pass laws and adopt every measure to secure the ease, comfort, luxury and wealth of a few. But the Soviet form of state is genuinely democratic though it curbs down the power of the bourgeoisie; being a Dictatorship of the Workers and Peasants, it gives effect to the will of the masses, the overwhelming majority. Though it strikes at and nationalises big capital, it gives land to the peasant and allows small concerns and distributive trades to go on. Only later, when the working class is strong enough to take on itself the complete control of the economic life of the country in detail, will all industries and services be nationalised. Its policy will be to build up industry as quickly as possible, so that the essential pre-requisites of a proletarian revolution are developed and then Socialism will become possible through the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

And how to fight for it ?

The gigantic class struggle which will lead the Indian working class to the seizure of power is still in its earlier stages. For this the widest possible mass of the people must be rallied upon their respective partial demands such as,

(1) 8 hour day for adults and 4 hour for youths (2) Higher wages (3) No direct or indirect taxation (4) Annulment of debts of the peasants, workers, artisans and poor petty-bourgeoisie (5) Old age, unemployment etc. insurance at state cost (6) Minimum wage of Rs 50/- pm (7) Abolition of caste, colour and sex distinction (8) Unlimited freedom of press, speech and assembly (9) Allotment of land to the soldiers and policemen (10) Universal free and compulsory education in the national language of the pupils, free boarding, clothing and supply of book to children at state cost (11) Release of all political prisoners etc. etc. (See Platform of Action of the Communist Party of India for fuller details).

The fight for these demands will convince the masses that even the slightest demands cannot be fulfilled without overthrowing imperialism and it will lead the masses into open revolt and struggle against imperialism. They will be led to insurrection and violent challenge against the established authority. But before the seizure of power, new organs of power must be created among the workers and peasants, revolutionary committees or Soviets of workers, peasants and soldiers’ deputies must be formed all over the country and these committees will fight the offensive of the present state and after overwhelming it with the help of mass insurrection will take over the function of the state in their own hands.

To ensure the victory of the insurrection the sympathy and support of the soldiers and the police must be enlisted. The Indian soldiers and the police are in the main poor peasants, who have been forced to seek employment in the army and the police by poverty, landlessness and hunger. The Communist Party of India fights for the allotment of land to the soldiers and the police equally with all other toiling peasants. It must be explained to the soldiers, the ex-soldiers and the policemen that the only means of acquiring land abolishing indebtedness and getting work is the revolutionary overthrow of British and feudal supremacy. …

The soldiers and police won over to the side of revolution and local revolutionary Soviets of the workers, peasants, soldiers and policemen set up, these will fight for the establishment of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Soviet Republic and the All India Congress of Soviets will take up the state power in its own hands after defeating and overthrowing imperialism through mass insurrection.

These are the main features of the immediate tasks and forms of struggle of the Indian revolution and for putting them into practise the Communist Party of India must be strengthened.

Against Roy opportunism and treachery

In this connection it is necessary to expose the treachery and opportunism of groups masquerading under the name of the Communist Party of India whose real motive are to serve the interest of Indian capitalism by disrupting the working class movements and organisations. The latest move in this direction is being made by MN Roy and his group. Roy, who was driven out of the CI on account of his counter-revolutionary activities in China and his opently siding with the Communist [revisionist] Opposition of the imbecile and treacherous Brandler group, has an equally treacherous and counter-revolutionary group in India which has recently adopted the name of the CP of India. We appreciate the sacrifices which Roy had formerly made in the cause of the Indian revolution and we join with all in demanding his release as well as that of all political prisoners from the imperialist jail. But nevertheless, the policy adopted and followed by his group is directly against the interest of the Indian working class and meant to sabotage the Indian working class movement which is part of the movement of the International proletariat. As the name of Roy and his former association with the Communist International, the organisation of the international proletariat, may delude some, especially the petty-bourgeois intellectuals, it is necessary to show the real counter-revolutionary colour of the theory and practice of the Roy group.

But it is not easy to do so because Roy has not advanced any consistent policy regarding the Indian national revolution after his expulsion from the CI. In 1930 he talked of capturing the Dist. Congress Committees and [his] latest work (Our Task in India by MN Roy) speaks about setting up “local committees of deputies elected by the workers and peasants, artisans and employees, poor intellectuals and small traders’ organisations.” … He says that “the signal for instruction will be the slogan for the election of the National Constituent Assembly” which, he admits “includes a large bourgeois element”. But still he tries to fool the masses by saying that “the Constituent Assembly is not a bourgeois parliament”, it is a “Democratic Dictatorship under the hegemony of the proletariat”. Apart from his own admission we all know from the history of Paris of May 4, 1948 and of the Russian Constituent Assembly of 1917-18 that the Constituent Assembly is the crown of parliamentary institutions, that it is here that the bourgeoisie revel in persecuting the oppressed and the exploited. Roy, who makes so much of being a thorough-bred Marxist, (read turncoat) has discreetly forgotten and overlooked like Kautsky, that Marx was emphatic in repudiating the Constituent Assembly of May 4, 1848, saying “The National Constituent Assembly, elected by universal suffrage … was an embodied protest against the aspirations of the February days and its aim was to guide the revolution back into bourgeois channels” (18th Brumaire). When the workers and peasants of India have violently overthrown British Imperialism and called for the session of the Constituent Assembly cherished by Roy, the bourgeoisie will also join the Constituent Assembly, as they did in Russia, and their favourite agents like Roy and his followers will be given comfortable posts in the Cabinet, as they gave to Tseretteli, Tchernoff and Co. in Russia. Further, as we said in the beginning of this para, Mr Roy is changing colours too often. In the “Masses of India” of July 1927 he attacked Comrade Dange because the latter had called himself an Indian Communist and wrote, “Communist movement in a country must be a national section of the international communist movement” and now in his “Our Task in India” he does not say that the Indian working class will fight hand in hand with the international proletariat for world revolution and now he is showing the greatest zeal in abusing the Communist International, the only revolutionary organisation of the international proletariat! But let the dogs bark.

It is clear that the Constituent Assembly is a reactionary slogan meant to dupe the masses and this is made more manifest by the adoption of the name of the Communist Party of India by the counter-revolutionary Roy group. The counter-revolutionary role of the Roy group. The counter-revolutionary role of the Roy group is clearly exposed by their behaviour and attitude at the Calcutta session of the Trade Union Congress. They sided with the treacherous national reformists of Bose & Co. (whom even Mr Roy had formerly been emphatic in denouncing !) and caused a split among the workers. At Bombay their activities are meant solely to disrupt the working class movement and cause split among the militant trade unions by misleading them into reformist lines.

The real immediate slogan of the Communist Party of India is the “Workers’ and Peasants’ Soviet Republic” and the steps to that goal have been treated above hi detail. It is a dangerous and laborious process, but there is no alternative. In order to achieve our purpose it is urgently necessary to build up a strong, underground, All-Indian Communist Party and it is our earnest appeal to all real revolutionaries to form secret groups and nuclei, to join the ranks of the Communist Party, to develop the revolutionary working class movement and to fight for the ultimate attainment of Socialism.

To all communists and class-conscious workers.

Dear Comrades!

The Communist movement in India has now reached such a stage of development that it is absolutely necessary to raise resolutely and firmly the standard of struggle for an All-Indian Communist Party, for uniting and welding together all the individual communists and isolated groups, for the organisational and ideological unity of the Communist ranks, utilising and developing at the same time the initiative from below to form and develop new local groups and organisations. We have read with pleasure the Open Letter addressed to the Indian Communists by the Central Committees of the CPs of China, Great Britain and Germany and we admit that excepting a few misinformation and exaggerations the points advanced in that letter and the criticisms made therein are true. Yes, “it is necessary to come out decisively for an All-Indian CP” and “to somewhat move the centre of gravity of Party work to the All-India activity and begin to build the party, carrying on the struggle for a common political line, creating a net of local Party organisations, developing the sense of responsibility, Party feeling and discipline, encouraging local initiative and courageously drawing into our ranks workers and those revolutionary intellectuals who are true to the working class cause”. Fighting against all opportunism inside and outside our ranks, it is up to you, comrades, to carry on the above tasks and fulfil the Indian revolution. We have committed many mistakes in the past, even now there are motives of provincialism and self-isolation in the ranks of the CPI, but let us not be downcast by them — let us put the interests of the proletariat above everything else and direct all our efforts towards the rapid formation of the COMMUNIST PARTY.

On To The Formation Of A Strong All-Indian Party!

Victory To The Indian Revolution !

January, 1933

II

Meerut And After

The pamphlet was originally intended to be published in December, 1932, but due to various reasons and difficulties it could not come out of the press till March, 1933. In the meantime the imperialists have convicted the comrades in the Meerut Communist Conspiracy Case. Even the despotism of the Russian Tsars and the oppression of the slave-owners of yore pale into insignificance before the wanton cruelty with which the blood-thirsty imperialists have persecuted the Communists in the Meerut Case. Even the most light-hearted shudder at the monstrous sentences passed on them.

But if the imperialist persecution is without parallel, it at the same time reveals the inherent weakness of imperialism, it brings out clearly how much the imperialists fear the Indian working-class offensive against imperialism, which was only started by the Meerut comrades. It has objectively roused the fury of the Indian masses against imperialism and this is revealed by the huge protests and fights of the workers at Calcutta, Bombay, Nagpur, etc. in defence of their leaders. The recent arrest and trial of the working-class leaders at Calcutta, Nagpur and Bombay in connection with the observance of the Meerut Day shows vividly the utter bankruptcy of imperialism and the stubborn will of the Indian working class to fight for their demands on the policy and tactics of communism.

Comrades ! let us not lose this opportunity. The objective conditions are distinctly in favour of the rapid growth and crystallisation of a very strong, underground and All-Indian Communist Party and we repeat to you the appeal in our Meerut Day leaflet to overcome your petty quarrels and to hurl yourselves with zeal, courage and determination into the immediate task of “CLOSING THE COMMUNIST RANKS”. The CC of the CPI has been split up with quarrels on account of its own faults and weaknesses. Let us close thai sad chapter in the history of the CPI and reform with new vigour and earanestness a strong and really representative Central Committee of the Communist Party of India, let us bring out a Central organ of the CPI let us infuse fresh blood into the party and — with a really organised Party — let us immediately take the lead in the anti- imperialist fight of the Indian working class.

Close the Communist Ranks

Release the Meerut Prisoners

Create a Central Party Organ

Lead The Struggle Against Imperialism

Calcutta Committee of the Communist Party of India

March, 1933.

5

Open Letter To The Indian Communists From The Chinese Communist Party

(Abridged)

July 1933

Dear Comrades,

We send the warmest greetings to the Indian Communists, our class brothers, our heroic comrades in the struggle of oppressed mankind for freedom.

More than a year has passes since we jointly with British and German Communist Parties sent you the open letter. We have been watching the events in your country with unceasing attention and have been following your self-sacrificing struggle. With truest and warmest desire to help in your great cause, we are giving you our experience and our ideas on the most important questions of the present revolutionary movement in India.

There is no doubt, that the chief and decisive question is the formation of a militant mass Indian Communist Party. The successful development of the revolutionary mass struggle is possible only under the leadership of a firm Communist Vanguard. …

There is not yet such an all-Indian Party in existence. We are becoming more and more uneasy at the slowness of the process of the formation of the Communist Party of India. It is true that the Communists in India are faced with many difficulties. The considerable isolation of India from the international workers’ movement, when bloody British imperialism tries in every way to prevent contacts between the revolutionary movement in India and the international proletariat — plays its negative role. It is not an easy task to break the toiling masses away from the influence of national reformism and form a mass Communist Party. It is not easy in the conditions of the barbarous monopolist domination of British imperialism and the cunning manoeuvres of the conciliatory and anti-revolutionary bourgeoisie. But in spite of all these difficulties, we must realise that the conditions are favourable and fully mature for the uniting and rallying together of-all the Communist groups, for organising an all-India Communist Party. In some of your documents you correctly write that the peasants and the working class of India are sinking deeper and deeper into the sea of poverty and ruin. Likewise the propertyless intelligentsia is doomed to death from starvation, while the bourgeois leaders of the National Congress are crawling on their knees before the British oppressors. The general situation in your country is characterised at the present time by the fact that through a pseudo-constitution and other manoeuvres, on the one hand, with the help of furious terror on the other hand, British imperialism is trying to strengthen its positions of domination and oppression of the people. The Indian bourgeoisie, which stopped the civil disobedience campaign and continues its capitulatory policy, clears the path for the rule of British imperialism. At the same time ever wider sections of the toilers are turning their eyes towards the path of the revolutionary struggle against the imperialists and feudalists, they are seeking revolutionary leadership. IN THESE CONDITIONS, THE RAPID FORMATION OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY IS THE CENTRAL TASK OF THE INDIAN REVOLUTION.

This is why we welcome the CALCUTTA COMMITTEE of the Communist Party of India, which energetically took up the call for the formation of an All-India Communist Party, which understood the necessity to shift the centre of gravity of Party work to activities on an all-Indian scale and which proposed to put an end to the pitiful chapter in the history of the CP of India the chapter of petty squabbles and splits and to open a new page by the formation of a powerful united Communist Party of India.

We hope that the Calcutta Committee, just as other local organisations, will show initiative and will energetically take up the task of uniting the scattered Communist groups and thus from the foundation of a mass Party. In India there are many Communists. If they are united and organised in a Bolshevik manner, their strength, influence and role will tremendously increase. …

The platform of action of the CP of India gave a correct Bolshevik analysis of the nature and driving forces of the Indian Revolution and the leading role of the prolatariat.

However, the working class, with the Communist Party at its head, can win and carry out its leadership only while PARTICIPATING IN THE STRUGGLE, when masses will see in practice that the Communists represent the only force capable of leading the revolutionary people to victory. The attention of the masses is concentrated now on the solution of a number of revolutionary democratic tasks. …

And therefore it is clear that the task of Communists is to ENTER AND TAKE CHARGE OF ALL THESE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENTS, of all movements of discontent against the existing order, whatever questions cause them to arise, and to go everywhere with Communist agitation, putting forward proposals and slogans at every pretext, constantly explaining and showing in practice that the path of the national-reformists is the path of defeat and slavery. Only when the workers and peasants and the semi-proletarians of the towns and villages see that in the struggle for their everyday economic demands, in the demonstrations against terror and arrests, in the movement against the payment of rent and taxes, in the conflicts with the police and officials, in every mass action whether it comes from the students or small toilers, peasants or workers, in the struggle against the caste system, etc. the communists come forward at the head and fight consistently and to the end, only then will the toiling masses, and not only the peasants and workers, BECOME CONVINCED that the Communists are the real leaders of the people who can be trusted and with whom it is possible to march to the end in the struggle for independence, land and power.

Look at our Chinese experience. In the revolution of 1925-27 the working class of our country became an independent class force, the leader of the toiling masses. Our Party became a mass Party and began to play a big role on the political arena of China. THIS WAS POSSIBLE ONLY BECAUSE OF THE PARTICIPATION OF OUR PARTY IN THE DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT AND ESPECIALLY IN THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST STRUGGLE FOR THE INDEPENDENCE OF CHINA. In the revolution of 1925-27 our Party applied the tactic of a united national front. It is true, this united national front could not have been and was not long, because in the condition of a growing revolution the Chinese bourgeoisie (and Kuomintang) turned to the camp of imperialism, reactionary militarists and landlords and became the worst enemy of the revolution. On the other side the former leadership of our Party was not able to avoid the worst opportunist mistakes while carrying out the tactic of the united front. It did not sufficiently defend the independence of the Communist Party and in the interests of the bourgeoisie limited and narrowed the struggle of the masses. AND HOWEVER BADLY WE CARRIED OUT THE TACTICS OF THE UNITED REVOLUTIONARY FRONT WITH THE NATIONAL BOURGEOISIE, whatever gross mistakes we may have made, nevertheless it is thanks to those tactics of the united front that we have obtained our successes in the struggle against imperialists and the conversion of our Party into a powerful political factor. Without these tactics the successes of the Northern Campaign of 1925 would have been impossible. We could not have organised the proletariat and roused it to the struggle as rapidly as the revolution demanded, we could not have drawn in the peasant reserves. The rapid growth of the organisation of the workers and peasants, the powerful development of the strike struggle of the proletariat and the rapid growth of the peasant movement in 1927, all these achievements which gave great power to our Parly would have been impossible if we had not adopted at the same time the TACTICS OF THE UNITED NATIONAL FRONT, IF WE HAD STOOD APART FROM THE PARTICIPATION IN THE GENERAL NATIONAL MOVEMENT IF WE HAD NOT ENERGETICALLY JOINED IN THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST STRUGGLE, if we had not attracted the broad masses to it, if we had not struggled for the leading influence in this struggle and if we had not determinedly exposed the counter-revolutionary essence of national reformist.

In India, owing to the concilatory position of the bourgeoisie, the tactic of the all-embracing united national front could not find application even the early stages of the anti-imperialist and agrarian revolution. In India it can only be a question of the policy of the revolutionary bloc of the workers and the basic masses of the petty-bourgeoisie. Of course this means a bloc of the masses and not combinations of leaders. In this form it is absolutely necessary to apply the tactic of the united front in the national liberation movement in India. The essence of Bolshevik policy is to preserve and strengthen the independent class character of the Communist Party, to avoid being dissolved in the petty-bourgeois sea, to paralyse the influence of the bourgeoisie on the masses, and at the same time create the UNITED FRONT OF WORKERS, PEASANTS AND URBAN PETTY-BOURGEOISIE, utilise any temporary allies, carrying the struggle for leadership of the national movement for independence, land and freedom.

And as far as we can understand the developing conditions in India we believe they are specially favourable to establish the hegemony of the working class in the anti-imperialist movement IF WE APPLY THE TACTIC OF THE UNITED FRONT. …

… At the present period of mass disappointment with the policy of the National Congress, along with the appearance of national revolutionary groups outside or inside the National Congress, we see the appearance of such “oppositional” groups as the group of the renegade Roy, who concealed by “left” phrases and a half-criticism of the policy of the National Congress, came out in practice against the development of the mass revolutionary struggle of the workers and peasants, carry on the old policy of subordinating the working class to the bourgeoisie and maintaining the leading position of the bourgeois National Congress among the masses of the people. The duty of the Indian Communists is to raise the banner of struggle against the Constitution, develop it on the lines of the mass movement, linking it up with the strike movement in defence of the immediate demands of the masses, directing it to support the general strike, non-payment of rent, debts and taxes and the liberation of the political prisoners. The duty of the Indian Communists is to call for united front of workers, peasants, students and urban poor, and to BEGIN TO FORM IT in the struggle against the Constitution, appealing to the rank and file adherents of the Congress to support the struggle of the workers and peasants. And expose at the same time the new attempts of the “left” national reformists to deceive the toiling masses as was done previously by the League of Independence. It would not be correct for the Indian Communists to abandon the struggle against the Constitution and limit themselves merely to the economic struggle. The comrades who take such a point of view are stepping towards a harmful sectarianism, isolate themselves from the movement for independence and do not understand the necessity to attract all democratic groups capable of marching together with the working class along even part of the path against the imperialists. It is wrong to counter-pose the anti-imperialist to the strike struggle, it is necessary to conduct both at the same time. The attractive force of the Communist Party will grow, and its rising significance as a revolutionary factor will increase in proportion to its rising participation in the anti-imperialist struggle and its ability to take the lead in all the actions of the Indian people against British imperialism. …

The growing wave of the economic struggle demands from you to overcome your weaknesses at once. With Bolshevik directness we must state that the experience of the strikes in 1932-33 testified once more that you have not yet learned to build amass trade union organisation, you do not know how to work well in the factories, you do not organise and attract active workers into the struggle and into the Party, you do not carry on everyday organisational preparatory work, you do not take the initiative into your hands in the struggle for the unity of the working class, you do not adopt the tactics of the united front in the workers’ organisations and do not carry on work in the reformist trade unions.

We wish here to call your attention to a most serious mistake made by some Indian Communists, who confuse the role of the Party and the trade unions and are unable to take the lead in the struggle for the unity of the proletariat. It seems to us that the absence of a Communist Party explains the fact that the process of the separating out of the revolutionary wing of the proletariat in 1929-32 from national-reformism took the form of splitting the trade unions, which to a certain extent, owing to confusion, replaced the Party, served as the only arena on which the ideological and organisational separation of the Communists from reformism took place. Some Indian Communists were unable to understand that the struggle against reformism does not necessarily mean a split in the mass organisations and should not lead to the Communists and the class conscious workers leaving these trade unions which are headed by reformists and national reformists. Such a sectarian policy has only strengthened the position of the bourgeoisie and their agents. At the same time some other Communists have not understood that the work in the reformist trade unions or unity with the national-reformist trade union organisations (which you should not decline even now) presupposes a tireless struggle of the Communists against reformism, for Communist policy, for our slogans and proposals.

Agreements with the national-reformists in the trade unions, strike committees, for various campaigns and concrete mass actions, or EVEN THE UNITY of the Red and national-reformist trade unions in places where the latter have the masses with them, must not lead to the abandonment of the independence of the Communist Party, the abandonment of our principles, the abandonment of the open defence and propaganda of our views and our right to criticise and expose the vacillations and treachery of the national-reformists. …

The struggle against Kandalkar and other “left” national- reformists does not mean refusal to work in the reformist trade unions, does not mean to refuse to carry on the tactic of the united front with working class organisations or even the joining together of the Red and mass national-reformist trade unions. This is important to understand. This is necessary to carry on particularly at the present period of growing economic and political struggles. …

… It is necessary to begin serious work in the reformist trade unions and in very kind of mass reformist organisations, with the aim of winning over to our side the masses who are in these organisation. …

The experience of our revolution, which we wish to share with you, consists in the main in the struggle of the proletariat for the leadership of the Independence Movement, which is decisive for the fate of the revolution. But the hegemony of the proletariat presupposes the tireless work of the Party for strengthening the fighting alliance of the working class and the toiling masses of the peasants under the leadership of the proletariat. …

We have returned once again to the question of the Communist Party. But now we wish to deal with it from another angle. … The struggle on two fronts in theory and practice was, and is, the basis of the activity of our Party. We have carried on an untiring struggle inside the Party against the “right” opportunists and “left” putschist sectarian deviation, for ideological Bolshevik uniformity. …

… You must struggle against petty-bourgeois individualism self-centred pride, which hinders the consolidation of the Party. You must struggle against those who deny the necessity or oppose the formation of an underground All-Indian Communist Party, who neglect to use legal possibilities, who occupy a tailist position, who give up the role of the initiators in the strike struggle, who show any irresoluteness in exposing the Congressites and the reformist leaders, who draws the Communists away from the democratic movements and the anti-iperialist struggle.

Every Party member must become conscious that there is nothing higher for him than the interests of the Party. You must convert the Communist Party into a proletarian Party, both in its composition and in regards to the role of the workers in its leading organs. …

Dear Comrades ! We feel really proud when you, in your leaflets, when speaking of the advantages of the Soviet form of government, not only refer to the experience of the USSR but to China as well. But we did not gain these victories at once. We had to overcome enormous difficulties that steeled us in the struggle. The development of our Chinese Communist Party, the growth of the confidence of the toilers of our Party, were built up as the result, first, of the stubborn building up of our independent proletarian party, by a tireless and irreconcilable struggle for its Bolshevisation, for its ideological and organisational consolidation, by a determined struggle on two fronts (“left” sectarianism and “right-wing” opportunism) against all deviations, second, as the result of the decisive exposure and a merciless struggle against national-reformism and other imperialist and bourgeois agents, third, as the result of the struggle of our Party to widen the movement and win the leadership of the anti-imperialist movement, fourth, as the result of our efforts to organise and lead the strike movement, the economic and political struggles of the working- class, fifth, as the result of bringing millions of peasants under our influence and by leading the agrarian revolution, sixth, as the result of the awakening of the masses and the consolidation of the hegemony of the proletariat.

… It would be wrong to transfer mechanically Chinese experience to India. You, undoubtedly, will take into account all concrete conditions and features which are peculiar to your movement, to the conditions of the struggle of Indian toiling masses. In China, as it is known, the revolutionary situation has developed, and on a considerable territory the Soviet revolution is developing successfully, the Chinese Red Army has achieved considerable victories.

The conditions in your country, in spite of the growing revolutionary upsurge, still do not coincide with ours. You must give correct estimation of the depth and breath of the revolutionary movement, of the degree of differentiation of class forces, of the strength and influence of the Communist Party, so that having this determined, decide about your concrete tactical tasks, basing yourselves upon the decisions of the Sixth World Congress of the CI.

The present international situation confronts us with the most complicated and responsible tasks. British imperialism has taken the initiative and is preparing intervention against the USSR. At the same time Japanese imperialism has occupied Manchuria and North China and is trying to convert those territories into a base for an attack on the country of victorious proletarian dictatorship — the USSR. The contradictions between the imperialist powers are growing, and a new world war is rapidly approaching. A powerful revolutionary front of the international proletariat and the oppressed peoples of the colonies is growing, widening and strengthening. …

We are entering on a new period of revolutions and wars. …

Through intense, everyday active work, the Communists everywhere must prepare the masses of the people. The time is approaching for decisive fights.

The foremost and most important task of the Indian Communists remains the task of uniting their forces.

Forward to the formation of the All-Indian Communist Party,

With fighting Communist Greetings,

Central Committee of The Communist Party of China

July 16,1933.

6

India

Abridged Draft of Political Thesis of the CC of CP of India[1]

It gives us great pleasure to publish in the “Inprecor” the draft of the political theses sent to us by the Provisional CC of the CP of India. The publication of these theses is a fact of great significance; it shows serious progress of the Communist movement. In place of scattered and politically disunited groups, we see that on the arena of the world history a united Communist Party is coming. And on the basis of its platform of action, the programme and decisions of the CI and the open letters of the various Communist Parties, it has begun to work out its own tactical line and energetically develop practical activities. …

(1) British imperialism in India

(Editor’s Note: We omit the Introduction, which correctly deals with the international situation)[2]

Hundred and fifty years of British imperialist rule has reduced the millions of Indian toiling masses to unspeakable poverty and abject slavery. The entire social, political and economic structure of Indian society is subjected to the needs and the domination of the system of foreign imperialism, with the result that hundreds of crores of rupees are yearly squeezed out of India, and her natural development completely throttled. …

The situation in India is growing ever more critical day by day. Fall of prices of the agricultural commodities has brought the peasant to the verge of starvation. The growing unemployment, coupled with wage-cuts and rationalisation has reduced the worker in the city to desperation. The growing inability of the peasants to pay rents and taxes is resulting in famines and epidemics in the countryside. …

On the other hand, there has been a strengthening of the revolutionary upsurge of the toiling masses during the recent years. The working-class movement has grown in strength and consciousness — and has begun to come out as an independent political force. There has been a tremendous growth in the discontent of the middle classes, which found its expression in the spread of the terrorist movement. The anti- imperialist movement of the masses assumed gigantic proportions in the years 1930-32 and in spite of the Nationalist bourgeoisie who took over control in order to localise and sabotage it, it was marked with a series of peasant revolts. … The only way out of this situation, the only way to put an end to this oppression and exploitation and to clear the path to progress is the unconditional overthrow of British imperialism and its Indian allies in India, the raising the banner of the agrarian and anti- imperialist revolution and winning of National independence, for the establishment of a Workers’ and Peasants’ Federated Soviet Republic.

(2) The attitude of the various classes towards imperialism and the revolution

The princes and the landlords owe the rights to their property and the right to exploit the peasants and their subjects — almost entirely to the favour of British imperialism. The very condition of their parasitic existence is bound up with the domination of British imperialist rule. These classes therefore form the most stable and reliable allies of British imperialism in India. … This alliance will serve British imperialism not only against the revolutionary masses of India but also as a counterpoise against the bourgeois class which is pressing imperialism for an “equal partnership” in the right to exploit the Indian toilers.

Notes :

1. The draft of the political theses of the CC of the CPI sent to us is written in a very detailed manner. Owning to lack of space we are compelled to publish it in an abridged form. In some places the abbreviations are marked. — Editor. [Inprecor]

2. The footnote is supplied by the Editor of Inprecor.

(3) The role of the bourgeoisie in the struggle against imperialism

The birth and the development of the Indian bourgeoisie are more or less interlaced with those of British imperialism. The modern bourgeoisie in India has emerged from the Indian mercantile capitalism who grew rich by participating in the trade with the British merchants in the early decades of the 19th century. The accumulation of capital in the hands of this class was the basis of the formation of Indian industries and the growth of the Indian industrial capitalists. The aspirations of the young industrial bourgeoisie of India met with a firm resistance at the hands of the British imperialists from the very outset. The general policy of British imperialism has been to prevent the growth of large-scale industry in India, with a view to keeping India as an agrarian appendix and retain its monopolist hold on the Indian market.

Although it is true that the Indian bourgeois class in general would like to see an independent industrial development of India, it proved its inability to play a progressive role in the realisation of that demand against imperialism.

The desire of the Indian bourgeoisie to obtain a substantial share in the exploitation of the country is the basis of its oppositional role against imperialism. On the other hand, its role as capitalists and its intimate relations with the big landowning and moneylending interests is the basis of its role of a counter-revolutionary force disorganising and sabotaging the revolutionary anti-imperialist struggle for independence.

The boycott movement of 1907-08 was under the leadership of the industrial bourgeoisie (which was then relatively small) and voiced the demand for an independent industrial development of India. They showed a tendency to favour revolutionary methods of struggle in achieving this demand, as against the liberal reformists of the old Congress school. Even in the first phase of the National Congress movement, when the inherent dangers of a revolutionary movement of the masses were not fully realised by the Nationalist bourgeoisie, this tendency did not go beyond a moral support to the terrorist actions.

In the post-war revolutionary upsurge of the toiling masses of India, which grew up under the stress of the post-war crisis and under the influence of the successful proletarian revolution in Russia, the Nationalist bourgeoisie and its political organ, the Indian national Congress, took over the leadership of the movement, with the reactionary slogans of Khaddar and non- violence. The Nationalist bourgeoisie through its organ, the Indian National Congress was pursuing a dual policy. On the one hand, it was coming out as a champion of the people and as the leader of a mass movement, with the object of exerting pressure on imperialism to win for itself some concessions and to strike a favourable bargain with imperialism. On the other hand, it was using its leadership of the movement to disorganise the revolutionary struggle of the masses, to localise it and to sidetrack it into fruitless channels. As son as it found that the movement was going out of the limits which it had set to it, it betrayed the movement — disorganised it, which helped the military and the police force of imperialism to crush the resistance of the masses.

In the present period of intense industrial and agrarian crisis the Nationalist bourgeoisie, in order to preserve control over the masses, again came forward with the slogan of independence and a mass civil disobedience. Here, again, the Indian national Congress pursued a dual policy. On the one hand it posed as the leader of a mass movement of the people in order to secure a favourable compromise with imperialism. On the other hand it played its counter-revolutionary role, disorganising and sabotaging the mass movement from within and never actually organising a genuine mass civil disobedience movement. …

While estimating the Nationalist bourgeoisie and the IN Congress in its relation to the revolutionary anti-imperialist struggle, it is necessary to guard against some errors. The error of mechanically placing now the bourgeoisie completely in the counter-revolutionary camp of imperialism. This error arises from the refusal to see the economic conflict between the Nationalist bourgeoisie and British imperialism. From this point of view it becomes difficult to explain the character of the leadership and the present dominating ideology of the Nationalist movement. It leads to the under-estimation of the Nationalist bourgeois influence on the masses. …

This under-estimation of the role of the Nationalist bourgeoisie leads to a wrong thesis about the leadership of the IN Congress. It is wrong to say that the leadership of the IN Congress is petty bourgeois or even that it passed into the hands of the petty bourgeoisie during the period of 1930-31. These wrong conception lead to “Left” reformism of the Royist type or to an opportunist toning down of the criticism of the Congress and the Royists.

Gandhism is not a petty bourgeois philosophy. It is an anti- revolutionary ideology of the nationalist bourgeoisie and forms the basis of its programme and tactics. It serves a double purpose. By its vague phrases about love, meekness, modesty and hard-working existence, the lightening of the burden of the peasantry, the national unity and the special mission of Hinduism, etc., it mobilises the support of the petty bourgeois masses, trying to utilise their nationalist ideas and reactionary religious prejudices. By its doctrine of “non-violence” and “truth” etc., it creates a technique of diverting the revolutionary struggle of the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal masses into fruitless channels — of actually disorganising and sabotaging the struggle (disorganising the struggles in 1922 and 1931, suppressing mass Civil Disobedience Movement, etc.). It is for this reason that “Gandhism” is bolstered up and financed by the industrial and a section of the commercial bourgeoisie and by a section of landlords.

“Left” Reformism ! If Gandhism can be considered the rightwing of the Congress bourgeois camp, “Left” reformism must be considered the left-wing of the same. The role of this aspect of Congress ideology and tactics is to retain within the fold of bourgeois leadership those sections of the petty bourgeoisie and peasantry who have begun to rebel against it. This it does by allowing the agents (Jawaharlal Nehru and others) to shout revolutionary phrases about socialism, Workers’ and Peasants’ Raj, to give equivocal support to the doctrine of class struggle, and so on. …

Finally, we have the latest and the most dangerous variety of “Left” reformism, viz., the Royists. This can be considered as the outpost of the national bourgeoisie inside the revolutionary anti-imperialist and workers’ movement. The role of the Royists is to disorganise the advance-guard of the genuine anti-imperialist revolutionary movement from within. For this purpose, they pose as Communist and pay lip homage to the Communist International. They try to spread disorganisation inside the ranks of the anti-imperialist elements, outside the Congress by propounding the theory that “the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie has left the Congress” and that the “petty bourgeoisie has captured the leadership of the Congress” (the Task Before Us, p 82) and thus trying to bring these elements back into the fold of the Congress. They ally themselves with the recognised agents of Congress like Jawaharlal Nehru by advancing slogans like “Constituent Assembly.” …

(4) The role of the city petty bourgeoisie and the peasantry

This intermediate position of the petty-bourgeoisie, between the exploiting classes, capitalists and landlords, on the one hand, and the exploited toiling masses on the other, also determines its political role in the anti-imperialist struggle. Thus the petty-bourgeoisie in general cannot play an independent role. Either it falls under the influence of Gandhism, “Left” national-reformism and Royism, and thus gets transformed into an appendage of the national bourgeoisie, or joins the revolutionary anti-imperialist front, under influence of the revolutionary working class.

Peasantry. The overwhelming majority of the population in India, i.e., about 80 percent, consists of peasants, living on agriculture. The peasantry cannot, however, be considered as a homogeneous class. The upper strata of the peasantry, consisting of well-to-do peasants and rich peasants, have landowning and money-lending interests and are also to some extent employers of agricultural labour. The overwhelming majority of the peasantry, however, consists of poor and middle peasantry, who employ no labour. The interests of this lower strata are diametrically opposed to those of the big landlords, moneylenders, traders, etc. it is this section of the peasantry which is the gigantic reservoir of revolutionary energy. In fact, as has been said about the Indian national revolution it can succeed only as an anti-imperialist and agrarian revolution. But the peasantry, not being an homogeneous class, being scattered and generally backward, is unable to assume an independent leadership in the anti-imperialist struggle. The history of the peasant struggle in the world have shown that the peasantry either falls under the influence of the bourgeoisie or that of the revolutionary proletariat. …

Imperialism is … trying to stem the tide of peasant unrest by brutal police oppression (which is medieval in character), on the one hand, and by means of petty remissions and reforms, on the other. These reforms (co-operatives, village uplift, etc.), insignificant as they are, are being carried out by imperialism with the assistance of the exploiting sections themselves. The Nationalist bourgeoisie tries to spread its influence among the peasantry and tries to pose as the champion of the peasant masses, mainly with the aid of the rural well-to-do peasants. On the one hand, it seeks to control the peasant masses under the slogans regarding “the fight against the satanic government” and of “non-payment of taxes.” On the other hand, with the help of the upper strata of the village, it seeks to restrict and localise the peasant struggles to keep them on strictly reformist lines, and whenever they outgrow these limits, to disorganise and sabotage the struggle. …

The treacherous role of the Indian National Congress was clearly demonstrated when in march, 1931, under the stress of growing peasant unrest and rebellions, it hastened to conclude a pact with imperialism and assisted imperialism in the task of suppressing the peasant unrest, lo the period after the truce Mr. Gandhi openly came out as the rent and tax collector of Imperialism and of zamindars. he exhorted zamindars to trust the Congressmen themselves and “realise that the Congress is a bridge between the people and the government.” He assured them that the Congressmen will on their part see to it that kisans fulfil their obligations to the zamindars. He warned the peasants to “reject the doctrine that their holdings are absolutely their to the exclusion of the zamindars.” …

The struggle against the bourgeoisie and bourgeois Congress leadership must be carried on consistently. It is necessary to expose the policy of Bose, Nehru, Roy, etc., who are trying to keep the rank and file with a slogan to revolutionise the Congress and convert it into revolutionary party. But while exposing this the Communists will not refuse through some of the mass organisations of the toilers to use the Congress platform and systematically combat the Congress reformism and its “Left” varieties. This tactical proposal of the Communist party, which remains an independent party of the proletariat outside the INC and consistently combats the Congress policy and at the same time organises the toiling masses in the trade unions, peasant committees, youth organisations, anti-imperialist organisations, etc., has nothing in common with the treacherous policy of Royists and other “Left” national reformists.

(5) Working class

The working class of India, although it forms a minority of the exploited toilers, occupies the key positions in the modern economic structure of India. It is the most revolutionary and the most determined opponent of every form of oppression, exploitation and slavery. …

The advance of the working-class movement all over India resulted in rising discontent amongst the urban petty bourgeoisie. There was a growing radicalisation in this class, insistence on the demand for national independence, and a rapid spread and popularisation of the Marxist ideology among this class. These events, together with the growing resistance on the part of the British Imperialists to grant any concessions to the Indian bourgeoisie (because of the world crisis in 1929-32), forced the India National Congress to adopt in words the slogan of “complete independence” (Lahore Congress, 1929) and to launch upon a reformist campaign in order to keep control over the masses, to retain its leadership over the masses and thus disorganise and sabotage the revolutionary struggle of the masses from within.

The period which succeeded the Meerut arrests was characterised not only by a severe and continued attack against the young revolutionary movement of the working class, but also by an attempt on the part of the national bourgeoisie and its “Left” agents to enter into the working-class movement and to split and disorganise it from within (GIF railway strike, formation of Congress Labour offices in Bombay workers’ area, split in GKU, national reformist activities of Khan-dalkar, Roy and others — split in the Calcutta Trade Union Congress — subsequent activities of the Left agents of the Congress, etc). Because of this combined attack, the organisation of the working class suffered to a considerable extent during the past two or three years (GKU and the GI Railway Unions). On the other hand, during this very period, great working-class actions took place, such as the further extension of the strike struggle to other working-class centers (Sholapur, Banglore, Baroda, and so on); participation of the workers in spontaneous uprising against the imperialist police (Sholapur); clear demarcation of the revolutionary working-class movement from the national bourgeois movement (struggle of the Bombay workers against the Congress in 1930); and finally independent demonstrations by the working class under the leadership of the Communists against Gandhi and the Congress (demonstration in Bombay against Gandhi, etc.). These events show that in spite of heavy odds, the revolutionary working class is steadily growing in consciousness and liberating itself from the influence of the nationalist bourgeoise and preparing itself to come forward as the leader and organiser of the revolutionary anti-imperialist and agrarian movement of the Indian toiling masses.

The conclusion at which we arrive is, therefore, that the working class is the most consistently revolutionary class. … it is destined to establish its hegemony in the revolutionary struggle against imperialism. This destiny of the working class will not be realised spontaneously or automatically. It requires conscious efforts on the part of the most advanced and class-conscious elements of the proletariat. For realising its destiny as the leader of the Indian Revolution, and for performing the historic task of organising the scattered masses of the peasantry and town poor for the struggle Against British domination and land lordism, the working class must organise its own political party, the Communist Party — consisting of the most courageous, resolute, disciplined and of the most conscious and advanced elements. …

There has been a tendency among some Communists in India to interpret the temporary setback suffered by the organisations of the working class in the year 1930 as a general spread of “reaction” among the proletariat. …

To accept the theory of “reaction” and to hold that the working class came into movement under the influence of the petty bourgeoisie in 1930, is to deny the independent role of the working class in the national revolutionary struggle — to deny the possibility and the need for fight at the present time for its hegemony in the anti-imperialist struggle of the exploited masses — and therefore to underestimate the need for the formation of the revolutionary party of the working class — the Communist Party of India. It must be clearly understood that there is a “growing revolutionary movement in India and growing independent political activity of the working class.”

To-day the advanced sections of the working class are liberating themselves more and more from the treacherous influence of the nationalist bourgeoisie and the Congress .This is proved by the fact that the very same reformist leaders who in 1930-31 swore by the Congress, are to-day speaking in a different tone before the masses. Realising that the Congress has lost its influence on the working class masses, they are to-day advising the workers to remain aloof from politics, to restrict themselves merely to economic struggle. This is to-day the only way in which they (Ruikar, Kandalkar, Roy) hope to isolate the workers from the influence of the revolutionary leadership. The formation of independent “labour” parties in the various provinces to- day is an indication of the same process. The national-reformist labour leaders can no more come forward before the workers with the slogans “Support the Congress” or that the “workers and peasants are the hands and feet of the Congress.” (Congress Labour Week in Bombayc l930.)

In a booklet entitled “Our Task in India” MN Roy declares:

“the backward Indian masses, brutally oppressed and mercilessly exploited by foreign imperialism and its native allies, are not yet politically conscious. They are not able to grasp big political issues. National freedom remains an abstract conception for them.” …

Thus in spite of the verbal support given by Roy in his eclectical writings to the idea of the hegemony of the proletariat, his theoretical statements and his whole practice consists of a bitter struggle against it and against the CP of India, against the interests of workers and peasants and against anti- imperialist and agrarian revolution.

(6) The character of the national revolution in India

As laid down in the colonial theses of the Sixth World Congress of the CI, the revolution in India will have to perform the tasks of the bourgeoisie-demonstratic revolution, which opens the way to proletarian dictatorship and socialist revolution. …

The Indian revolution in its present state will have to carry out the following tasks laid down in the draft platform of the CPI :

[Here the four points at the end of Part I of the Draft Platform of Action (text VII2) is reproduced, — Ed.]

Revolutionary in India a Soviet Revolution, and the Present Tasks

The character of the revolution as a workers’ and peasants’ revolution also determines the form of the organisation of the struggle. It is clear that the overthrow of the rule of British imperialism and the princess and landlords can only be achieved by the workers, peasants, and soldiers, under the leadership of the working class and its Party, the CPI. In order, however, to arrive at this stage, and to ensure the leadership of the working class, it is necessary to develop now the struggle for partial demands and organise and prepare the toiling masses, …

“Constituent Assembly” — A reformist slogan

The slogan of “Constituent Assembly” has been put forward by the renegade MN Roy against the slogan of the “Workers’ and Peasants’ Soviet Republic” put forward by the Communist Party of India. … Roy’s policy emerge logically out of the imperialist policy of “decolonization” according to which British imperialism in playing a progressive role, and thus a way for a peaceful victory is secured. The leadership of the Congress and the CD movement, according to him, was in the hands of the petty-bourgeoisie (“Our Tasks in India,” page 48) and under this pretext he called upon the workers and peasants to follow the Congress leadership (workers and peasants are the hands and feet of the Congress — Royist slogan in 1930), i.e., to support the bourgeoisie. In 1930 Roy and his followers (in the declaration of June 8,1930, published in Berlin and republished in India in the appeal of Sheik, Kabadi and Brojesh Singh in the magazine “Vanguard”, Bombay) maintained that :

“The central political slogan of the Indian revolution should be the election of a Constituent Assembly, as against the Round Table Conference on the one hand and the utpoi of a Soviet Republic on the other …”

He further went on to describe how the idea of the Constituent Assembly can be realised :

“The local Congress Committees broadened through the inclusion of the delegates from the workers’ and peasants’ and small traders’ organizations should become the units for the election of the Constituent Assembly.”

It is well known that the slogan of “Constituent Assembly” was a revolutionary slogan of the bourgeoisie a time when this class played a revolutionary role. But it must be remembered that at that time while putting this slogan the bourgeoisie and some petty-bourgeois parties connected it with a slogan of a revolutionary insurrection. But Roy advanced this slogan without saying anything about the revolution while this is the central issue. Roy and his followers proposed to create under the protection of the British army “an organ of democratic power,” maintaining that the British would be unable to do anything “for the sovereign authority of the Constituent Assembly cannot be doubted.” (“Vanguard,” page 12; “People”, Jan. 21,1931). And now when the Indian bourgeoisie is reformist — this slogan was put forward as part of a reformist policy and served one purpose, and that is to fool a section of the petty-bourgeoisie following the Congress, who are showing radical tendencies and keep them under the Congress leadership. By proposing to make the Congress Committees, “broadened by the inclusion of the delegates of the workers’ and peasants’ and small traders’ organisations.”, Mr. Roy wished to perpetuate the illusion that the Indian National Congress is the organisation of the masses, with the object of bringing the workers’ and peasants’ organisations under the treacherous leadership of the bourgeoisie. …

(7) Strategy and tactics of the CP in the revolutionary struggle

The principal object of the CP to-day must be to come out as the conscious vanguard of the working class — and to move forward towards the demonstration of the independent leadership of the working class in opposition to the nationalist bourgeoise in the struggle of the masses to overthrow imperialism and landlordism. We have shown that a revolutionary wave is rising in India. …

Tactics in Relation to the National Bourgeoisie and Its Political Organ

As pointed out in previous sections, it is necessary to understand two things — that the national bourgeoisie has not as yet completely merged itself into the counter- revolutionary bloc of imperialism and feudal princes and landlords, and that it is carrying out a liberal opposition, whose main purpose is to disorganise and sabotage the revolutionary anti-imperialist struggle of the masses from within; it is dead against anti-imperialist and agrarian revolution of the toiling masses and is afraid of the working class. An incorrect appreciation of these two points may lead to in correct tactics — as was shown by our experience during the CD movement. On the one hand there was a tendency to regard the anti-imperialist movement of 1930-31 as a movement of the petty-bourgeoisie. This interpretation involves a denial of the fact that the leadership of the CD movement never passed out of the hands of the national bourgeoisie. Further, it involves the denial of the proletariat and peasantry as the driving forces of the revolution. It was natural, therefore, that such a tendency should give rise to the “Theory of Reaction,” to the practical withdrawal of the slogan of “General Strike” and to the efforts at securing unity with Khandalkar in such a manner that the difference between reformism and the class point of view disappear. These deviations,which have been discussed at considerable length in the “Open Letter,” must be combated.

On the other hand, there was a tendency to regard the whole anti-imperialist movement of 1930-31 as a purely Congress movement and to remain aloof from it. It is a fact that during the CD movement of 1930-31 Communists did not realise the full significance of the movement and objectively isolated themselves from the struggle of the masses. This sectarian deviation, too, must be corrected.

It is necessary to realise that the’national bourgeoisie and its organ, the National Congress, still wield considerable influence over the masses. The secret of it influence is not its positive political programme, but the assurance of its loyalty to the independence movement, the skillful use it makes of the hatred of the people towards bloodthirsty robber imperialism and of the still existing illusions of a “United National Front.”…

Harijan Movement

Similarly, while exposing the stunt of the Harijan movement as a means of side-tracking the attention of the masses from the political movement, we must also show to the untouchable toilers that their emancipation cannot be achieved by their being taken into the fold of Hinduism. The problem of the untouchables, who are for the most part landless labourers and semi-serfs, cannot be radically solved until imperialism and landlordism and all remnants of feudalism are overthrow. We must expose the “Harijan movement” of Gandhi before the untouchable workers and peasants by showing to them that “Gandhi and the other Congress leaders call for the maintenance of the caste system (Hinduism), which is the basis and justification for the existence of the socially outcast pariahs.” We must point out to the untouchables that “only the ruthless abolition of the caste system in its reformed Gandhist variety, only the agrarian revolution and the overthrow of the British rule will lead to the complete emancipation of the working pariahs and slaves.”

United Anti-Imperialist Front Under Proletarian Leadership

In order to isolate the nationalist bourgeoisie and its political organ, the Indian National Congress, from the masses, in order to develop the anti-imperialist struggle, the Communist Party must win the leadership in the anti-imperialist movement of the masses. …

One of the forms of broad anti-imperialist movement can be the Anti-Imperialist League. The League must come out as an organisation opposing the policy of the Congress. It must constantly criticise the national reformist leaders and organisations, and participate under its own banner and slogans in the mass demonstrations, etc., organised by the Congress. …

The struggle for the realisation of the hegemony of the proletariat must necessary be a struggle against Royism as well. The struggle against Roy must be carried out on the basis of concrete material and examples, comparing their pseudo Communist phrases with their anti-revolutionary practice. … It also means that it is permissible and advisable to propose a united front on concrete issues to those mass organisations (trade unions, etc.,), which are led by the reformists, including those of Roy-Karnik-Kara variety.

Another petty-bourgeois group, which the CP has to deal with is the terrorist. As stated above, the phenomenal growth of terrorism is due to the rising discontent among the impoverished middle class of the villages and towns. … Although some of these groups repeat Marxist-Communist phrases and oppose Gandhism in their leaflets, they do not recognise class struggle in practice and are still labouring under the “illusion of united national front.” In this way they are under bourgeois influence and believe in the possibility of an independent bourgeois capitalist development in India, under the rule of the Indian bourgeoisie. With the development of class struggle in India, i.e., with the development of the struggle of the workers and peasants against imperialism and landlordism and mill owners, the process of differentiation will take place among them. It is the duty of the CPI to win over the rank and file of the terrorist groups, and especially of those groups who are showing inclinations towards Marxism and Communism, to the standpoint of consistent Marxism and of the draft platform of the CPI. …

Tactics of the Agrarian Revolution

Because of the contained agrarian crisis, which has increased the burdens on the shoulders of the already impoverished peasantry, there has been a tremendous growth of a spontaneous peasant movement. In certain parts (Burma) it assumed the character of a guerrilla warfare. In UP, CP and Bengal there have been a series of peasant up risings. The national bourgeoisie and its organ, the National Congress, while putting forward the slogans of a “no-tax” campaign, in reality did everything actively to sabotage it. The CPI must point out to the peasantry and show in actual practice that it is the working class alone which can consistently support all its demands and help to organise its fight for them.

The general demands which the CPI must put before the peasantry are enumerated in the Draft Platform under the Peasant Demands. …

In order to popularise these demands amongst the peasantry and to carry out the tasks outlined therein, it is necessary to send class-conscious workers from the industrial areas and tried revolutionary students to the countryside and utilise their contacts with the peasantry to form peasant groups. These groups will be the nuclei for spreading revolutionary propaganda and literature in the countryside and with their help it will be possible to participate and take initiative in the local peasant struggle for day-to-day economic demands of the peasantry. With the help of these groups it is necessary to participate in the local peasant conferences etc., held under the auspices of reformists and nationalist and put forward our programme before the peasants. Wherever possible attempts should be made to form local peasant unions, rallying large masses of poor and middle peasantry. … In every individual conflict of the peasant masses against the government, land-lords and moneylenders, it is necessary to organise a peasant committee, which will be elected by the peasants themselves, and which will be the leading organ of the struggle. In the day-to-day propaganda it is essential to equine the peasantry with the struggle of the working class against the capitalists in the city, and to explain to them how the workers’ organisations and workers’ strike committees are run. …

Wherever a dispute with the government on taxes or rent, or debt dispute with the landlords or moneylenders arises, it is necessary to organise mass resistance, conducted by a peasant committee elected by the peasants participating in the same. In such conflicts it is essential to form “peasant guards” in order to defend the peasants against the attacks of the exploiter and his agents. Effort must be made to widen the resistance of the peasantry over ever-larger areas and give this resistance a political character.

The perspective to be placed before the peasantry must be that of an all-Indian no-tax, no-rent, no-debt struggle. …

Tactics With Reference to the Working Class

The period of 1926-28 resulted in the formation of a basis for the organisation of a mass underground CPI, and this task was put on the agenda, when the process was temporarily interrupted by the Meerut arrests. In the period that followed, working-class activity increased in depth and breadth; there was an intensification of the class struggle and the growth of class differentiation between the national reformist and the working- class movement. (Here the Political Thesis deals with the question in a more detailed manner — Editor.) The CP has lagged far behind. The CP continued to remain a bunch of Communist groups, not united organisationally and in some cases not even politically and to a certain extent isolated from the working masses. This tendency of localism and provincialism must be firmly rejected. To-day it is absolutely necessary not only to strengthen the provincial organisations by basing them on local and factory groups of conscious and trained workers, drawn from the day-to-day class struggle, but at the same time it is necessary to weld all the true Communist groups who take their stand upon the Draft Platform of the CPI into a centralised, underground mass Party. In the words of the “Open Letter to the Indian Communists” which was issued by the CCs of the Communist Parties of China, Great Britain and Germany. …

Another weakness of the Communist movement to-day is the inability to develop and extend underground forms of movement, struggle and organisation. The Communist cadres have considerable experience of open mass work, but they have still to learn to devise methods to combine “legal” and underground activities. … To neglect underground forms of the movement means a refusal to create the CP, a refusal to conduct the revolutionary struggle to organise the masses under the banner of the CP. The refusal to use both legal and semi-underground forms of the movement leads again to sectarianism, to self-isolation from the masses, leads to refusal to create a mass underground Communist Party. The refusal to carry on work in the trade unions, in the reformist as well as national reformist trade unions, leads to isolation and sectarianism.

It is necessary in the shortest possible time to create an underground printed organ of the Central Committee and legal newspapers. The underground organ will serve the purpose of co- ordinating and guiding the activities of the provincial organisations and knitting them closely together. Through this underground organ it will be possible to lead and influence the local legal organs of the Party organisation. This will ensure the working out of a united Communist line and the establishment of unity of views and methods of struggle. This paper must become, in the sense of Lenin’s teachings on the role of the Central Party organ, the agitator and organiser of the toiling masses and of the Party. While conducting underground Party organs, it is necessary to exhaust all legal possibilities of popularising the teachings of Marx and Lenin and of creating Marxist literature on Indian problems, through the help of the legal papers and press.

Trade Union Movement

It is necessary, where there is a need, to build mass Red trade unions, and also to work in the reformist unions. It would be wrong to regard the work in the reformist unions as something different and in opposition to the work in the Red trade unions, or the creating of new unions. …

This tactics of united front or amalgamation of parallel trade unions does not signify peace or armistice with national reformism, does not signify that the Communist should cease to explain to the workers the difference between the Communist policy and the reformist policy, or should cease to convince the workers to choose militant, class-conscious workers in the leadership of the trade unions.

On the contrary, it might create, providing correct policy and energetic everyday work of the Communists is carried out, the best conditions for winning over the misled or confused workers to the banner of militant working-class policy. This should be clearly under stood by every class-conscious worker. Any other interpretation of the united front or amalgamation of some parallel trade union as a peace or armistice with the reformist leaders is wrong and opportunistic. …

The split[3] had a political basis. It was engineered by those who wanted to isolate the Communists and join hands with the liberal reformists for the betrayal of the working-class masses. Immediately after the split MN Roy wrote an article in “Independent India” (August 31,1931), in which he made an offer to Joshi, Giri, and others for Trade Union Unity. The basis for unity here offered is “Pure Trade Unionism”, i.e., economism. In concluding his article he expressed his joy at the fact that the Communists, whom he called “ultra leftist disturbers of trade union unit”, “are now out of the way.” Since then they have been carrying out strike-breaking tactics with the help of and in the interests of the Congress millowners. They have been carrying out a systematic struggle against the Communists and expelled them from the unions (GIF). …

While carrying out energetic trade union activity, it is useful at the same time to form open mass local political organisations of the working class. … Such working-class youth organisations must be formed in each industrial centre, must recruit working-class youths and also draw in the best elements amongst the revolutionary students tried in the field. They must carry on a fight for the redress of grievances of young workers, must generally assist in the work of the revolutionary trade union movement, conduct study classes, etc., for the Marxist-Leninist training of the young workers, must assist and participate in political activities on the basis of the main political slogans of the draft platform. Besides organising such open working-class youth organisation, it is necessary to take steps to build a Young Communist League of India. … It must be remembered that these organisations must not become rival organisations to the CPI. It must be clearly understood that such organisations will be of a temporary character, because British imperialism will not allow the existence of any organisation opposed to British imperialism and developing mass resistance; if in any place such organisation is formed, it can be use only as an auxiliary organisation from which to recruit workers for the CP. The formation of such organisations must not lead to a position when the Communist Party does not speak openly in its name on every incident and every expression of class struggle; on the contrary, the CP and its local organisations must issue their leaflets, must build nuclei in the mills, must recruit workers for the CP, must everywhere be heard by the workers and lead their struggles. …

Source: Inprecor, 20 July, 1934

Note :

3. The reference is to the AITUC split in 1931 – Ed.