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The riots that took place in Bhima Koregaon in the very beginning of this year significantly shook Maharashtra, as thousands of Dalits fought over days after coming under attack by Hindu- nationalist reactionaries. On Wednesday the Indian government directly backed this attack against the people, by not arresting those who organized the attack on the Dalits’ gathering, in which one Dalit youth was slain, but those activists and lawyers who demanded justice for this cowardly attack that sparked the clashes.
The Background
The Battle of Bhima Koregaon between the East India Company and Peshwa forces on the 1st of January 1818 came to be an important part of popular history in Maharashtra, for the bulk of the British forces consisted mostly of members of the cast of the untouchables that stood their ground against the higher-cast Brahmans of the Peshwa forces. With the eventual defeat of the latter, this battle is a part of the Dalits history of successful struggles against the higher casts.
And as such, it is annually celebrated by the Dalits and forces siding with their struggle against exploitation and oppression. As this years celebration marked the 200th anniversary of this battle it was of great importance. However, the celebration came under heavy attack by a mob of at least 1.000 Hindu-nationalist reactionaries, mobilized by archenemies of the people, close to the BJP1. In this attack, at least one young Dalit was brutally murdered2.
For more than two days Mumbai, Bhima Koregaon's neighboring city Pune and many other parts of Maharashtra saw a mighty uprising of Dalits. Although two companies of the State Reserve Police Force and several Quick Response Teams of the police were stationed around the area and although the local police cyber crime cell issued notification warnings of “stern action against socially divisive social media posts” and jammed phone signals around Koregaon Bhima and surrounding villages3, the people, in their justified anger, built barricades, blocked roads and trains, went to the streets protesting and striking as well as targeting state and higher-cast property.
The Pretense
On April 17 the reaction, in their attempt to shift the blame away from the state and the BJP and to criminalize democratic struggles, carried out a number of search operations in Maharashtra against political activists of a broad democratic spectrum. At around 6:00 in the morning, the Pune police conducted simultaneous raids at the homes of prominent activists in Maharashtra, namely Sudhir Dhavale (Dalit activist, Republican Panthers), Harshali Potdar (Activist, Republican Panthers), Ramesh Gaychor, Jyoti Jagtap, Sagar Gorkhe, Rupali Jadhav and Dhawala Dhengle (all artists of the cultural group Kabir Kala Manch) allegedly in relation to the violence that sparked after the bi-centenary celebrations of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon and the subsequent bandh. At the same time as the residence of prominent people’s lawyer Surendra Gadling was searched also a raid in Delhi was carried out, targeting Rone Wilson, Public Relations Secretary of the Committee for the Release of the Political Prisoners (CRPP). In this arbitrary raid, the police seized his laptop, phone, various books and some money.
These raids were carried out with the reactions direct goal of creating general opinion against the democratic forces and was an attempt made in order tocreate facts for the main narrative that was widely circulated in the bourgeois press: “That the democratic / Dalit / Maoist forces had instigated the whole affair and willingly let the event come under attack (and the youth be killed) so they can afterwards manipulate the masses into rioting”5. All the while, the real culprits behind the planning (and it was planned) and carrying out the attack, the two Hindu-nationalist activists Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote with close ties to the BJP and Sangh Parivar6, walked free. Or as the CRPP put it on occasion of this raids:
"The police forces have failed to arrest Sambhaji Bhide in connection with this case. Rather, they seem interested in conjuring up an elaborate tale of how the songs of peoples’ resistance sung by activists at the commemoration on 31st December were deliberately intended to incite violence!"
The Arrests
Four days ago the reaction open the curtain for yet another act in their stage play of framing the democratic and revolutionary forces for being responsible for the uprising. In the early hours of Wednesday the 6th of June, police arrested Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Prof. Soma Sen, Sudhir Dhavale, Mahesh Raut by falsely framing the under UAPA.
Wilson is a long time activists and current Public Relations Secretary of the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners. As such he has been at the forefront in organizing numerous activities against the unconstitutional nature of the draconian laws in India and the arbitrary use of death penalty (especially against Dalits and Muslims).
Advocate Surendra Gadling is also a (executive) member of the CRPP and the General secretary of the International Alliance of People's Lawyers. He has been fighting the cases of many innocent people who have been framed under UAPA and was instrumental in the acquittals of many including Sudhir Dhawale. He has also been representing Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba and others who were punished with life sentence last year under UAPA by the Nagpur Sessions Court.
Professor Soma Sen of Nagpur University, the Dalit activist and Republican Panthers member Sudhir Dhawale as well as the anti-displacement activist Mahesh Raut are all active voices of resistance in solidarity with people movements. As such, each of the five arrested is a thorn in the back of the old Indian State.
One of many country-wide protest rallies
The reaction, in this sense, hopes for a success on different levels: Firstly, they want to frame the Communist Party of India (Maoist) for being responsible for the deaths that came from the riots in January when it was clearly the state and the Hindu-nationalists. Hence, they now proclaim in the press that the five arrested activists would be “top urban Maoist operatives”. Secondly, they try to criminalize the struggle of the Dalit resistance in a time when each upsurge is followed by an ever wider spreading avalanche and to spread terror among those willing to fight. Thirdly, it must be highlighted that the arbitrary arrests have come at a time when the CRPP has been able to gather public opinion against the conviction of Prof. GN Saibaba and others. Hence, framing the CRPP lawyer responsible for Saibabas case as a Maoist, which in bourgeois press boils down to "terrorist", serves the reaction to disperse the public opinion gathered. And fourthly, the recent attacks mark yet another steptaken against the people by the BJP led government in the light of the upcoming elections next year, as they attempt to crack down on any forces considered to denounce the farce of this event.7
Our solitary is with the five arrested! We reject any attempt staged by the Indian government to frame democratic activists and defenders of people's rights as criminals. The Dalits at Pune were targeted in a planned attack by Hindu-nationalist forces in service of the old Indian state and the imperialists. No tale spun in the Indian press will make the people think otherwise. It is the reaction and the continues exploitation and oppression that Dalits are subjected to, that led to the justified rebellion in January!
The full statement regarding the recent arrests of the CRPP can be foundhere.
1Bharatiya Janata Party: Biggest Parliamentary Party; Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi; well known for its various links to paramilitary anti-people militias
2Police footage of this brutal murder was released only now, as part of the footage in connection with the recent arrests. It was not published, after the actual crime took place and the footage might have been used to hunt down the actual murderers. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukmw38GUXOw
3The Hindu, “Protests spread in Maharashtra post clashes during bicentenary celebrations of Bhima-Koregaon battle”, 2nd January of 2018
4Committee for the Release of the Political Prisoners, “Strongly condemn the harassment of Rona Wilson, Public Relations Secretary of CRPP, and others in the name of ‘search operations’”, 17th April of 2018
5Compare for example The Indian Express, “Koregaon Bhima violence case: Pune police arrest ‘top urban maoist operatives’ from Delhi, Mumbai, Nagpur”, 7th June of 2018: “The complaint has also alleged that the suspects, as per strategy of the banned CPI-Maoist, tried to mislead Dalits and incite violence.”
6Reactionary umbrella organization for organizations such as the paramilitary Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
7Committee for the Release of the Political Prisoners, “Condemn the Arrests of Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Sudhir Dhawale, Prof. Soma Sen and Mahesh Raut”, 8th June of 2018
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From comrades of Bremen we have received the following photos of an action in solidarity with Turgut Kaya:
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We publish the unofficial translation of an important editorial of the A Nova Democracia newspaper, issue 210, on the important struggle of the workers and revolutionaries in the country and the imminent military intervention in the State management.
The stoppage of the truckers clearly showed the deepness of the general crisis of the country in all meanings. Apart from displaying the fragility of the road transportation modal (which is a result of a bureaucratic capitalism based on the semi-feudal backwardness wrapped up with modernity and submitted to the semi-colonial imperialist domination) it also reveals the general situation of the country in an inclined plan. An inclined plan that no facade solution or supposed “management efficiency” (like the electioneering political parties and the media monopoly cackles) could invert. Not even the moralist and redeemer rant of the scammer military “boot-lickers”1 of the USA could do it. Brazil is shaken and its true sane forces started to stir it up. Starting from this, nothing will be where it was until now.
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Since May 2017 the island of Mindanao in the Philippines is under martial law, meaning that the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) can do whatever they want in order to fight the Communist Party of the Philippines and the NPA (New People‘s Army) who are carrying out People‘s War. According to the NDFP Far South Mindanao (National Democratic Front of the Philippines) the anti-revolutionary operations increased in quantity and quality since the declaration of martial law. Last month hundreds of people had to flee their homes to evade military reprisals. The AFP reacts to encounters with the NPA with air strikes, killing farmers and lumads (indigenous people). The prisons are full of alleged NPA members, mainly farmers and lumads as well. The protests against landgrabbing and and coal mining operations of multinational firms are brutally suppressed. And in these areas, where the military counter-insurgent operations are most frequently, the imperialists are investing their money. This shows what the Duterte regime is trying to do: offering foreign investors the opportunity to rigorously exploit the Filipino people for their business interests, no matter what that means for the people. If they have to be expelled, that's the way it is. If they starve, that's just the way it is. But if they resist, then they just have to be locked up, tortured and killed.
In addition, the reactionary press does anything to denounce the struggle. They write, that the “victims” of the NPA would mostly be “unarmed civilians”, “mistaken for (military) informants”, they try to confuse the masses and make the struggle look unjustified and the methods “terroristic”, by saying that they would be “the ultimate violation of human rights”. By that, they try to disguise the fact that they are the ones who are waging terror against the Filipino people.
And the reaction is forced to act like that, otherwise they would have to admit that the People’s War is still ongoing and that the masses can’t be silenced easily. Still, there are many areas in Mindanao that the AFP can‘t access, as the President Duterte confirmed a few days ago. He also hopes that the peace negotiations with the CPP will end the resistance soon (and will subsequently bring more foreign investors and businesses to the island and therefore worsen the situation of the Filipino people). But every Maoist knows that you can’t just make peace with the enemy. The masses won’t be satisfied until Imperialism is destroyed for good and it’s the task of every Maoist to work towards this goal, while not captivating oneself with the reaction, nor being led astray by revisionism. You can’t reach anything at the table of negotiation that you haven’t already won on the battlefield.
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In Oaxaca, the Democratic Movement of the Workers of Education of Oaxaca (MDTEO) went into strike for indetermined period of time, as part for the construction of the national strike which is going to start on June 4. The national movement of workers of education aims against the counter-reforms on education. They make a firm stand against the opportunists who criticize the attitude of the workers of Oaxaca, these opportunists want to avoind conflict with the local bourgeoisie and sides with imperialism who are behind such „structure reforms“ and the servant bureaucratic capitalism and landlords who handles the old state and implement the imperialist policies.
Such reforms show the crisis of the boureacratic capitalism, as part of the general crisis of imperialism. The opportunists aims toward the corporative demands of the workers and refuse to see the struggle as part of the struggle for the demands of the people, they advocate to make deals in the electioneering scenerio, to collaborate and concilliate for a plate of peas. And MDEO makes firm stand for the people, they say the contend for managing the old state is among the fractions of the ruling classes, not the people. At the same time the increasing "fascistization" of the regime advances against the people in struggle with arbitrary detentions, political arrests, torture, enforced abductions of activists, etc.
MDEO makes a stand that their struggle towards the national strike aims to mobilize the broad masses, in state and national levels. They say the true victories of the strike can only be acheived in the streets, not in the parliament or any candidate. To do so, the workers need to improve their organization level be it official or unofficial, legal or ilegal means, according to the historical experience of the popular movement.
They make a call for unity, not for negotiating, but unity by deeds, by actions on the streets.
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The following text was released in English language by the comrades of Tjen Folket. As the author himself states in the preface, we consider this document a contribution and impulse to further deepen the discussion about class analysis both in Norway and the FRG. In this sense, we document the following text:
Classes in the Norwegian Society
By Ragnar Røed
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We share this mobilisation video for the big celebration on the 30th of June in Bremen.
At 13:00 Sielwall 38.
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Since the massacres of the old Indian state in Gadchiroli in late April (in the current edition of the "Red Post" can be found a detailed report and assessment of events), the reactionary press reports daily about the Maoist developments in India. The CPI (Maoist) is developing strong campaigns and activities to advance the People's War, while the reaction is desperately gathering its forces and attempting to brutally crush the rebellion with psychological warfare (especially lies, as proven through the events in Gadchiroli) and devious actions. At the moment, for example, the reaction is trying to put the masses against the masses by mobilizing tribal youth to fight the Maoists. A special unit, consisting only of tribal youth, is now supposed to join and support the CRPF, the armed forces that mainly and almost exclusively try to fight the Maoists. In addition, they decorate themselves with the fact that this special unit consists even to 33% of women. Apparently they want to pretend that they are not the oppressors they are. As they were in favor of the people and would consider women as equal, as fighters. What they want is to spruce up their image, to put the masses against the masses. They want to overshadow, that the Maoists have always mobilized tribals and women and involved them in the struggle, because they are the ones exploited and oppressed by the old Indian state and the imperialist chauvinists, they are the ones being displaced, raped, tortured and killed. And the masses will always know who really is on their side, who will bring about change and who just wants to use them, just to drop them after they have served their purpose. The masses can’t be confused. And the successes of the CPI (Maoist) confirm that. The Sukma administration in Chhatisgarh said yesterday that half of the “village panchayats” are “no-go areas” for the government due to “Left-Wing-Extremism”, as the reaction calls the People’s War in India .
