Merger statement by the CPI (ML) Red Star and the CPI (ML) Red Flag

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Communist revolutionary movement in India is presently in a much fragmented state. In order to overcome this situation and build a united, all-India Marxist-Leninist party deeply entrenched among the broad masses of the people including the working class, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Red Star and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Red Flag have, over a prolonged period of time, exchanged opinions on different questions related to the programme of the Indian revolution, tactical line, organizational principle, the present situation and our tasks.

This exchange has revealed that just as there are many important questions on which we have unity, so also there are some important issues on which we have differences. There are also some other issues that need further discussion. Both the organizations have the same opinion on the following issues:
1. Marxism-Leninism and Mao Tse Tung Thought is our ideological basis.

2. A. India is a dependent state and society under neo-colonial domination of imperialism.
2. B. Taking the country as a whole, the development of capitalist relations in agriculture is now a growing trend at the all-India level, though there are diversities and unevenness to a large extent. These diversities and unevenness exist among the different states, within a state and even within a district. There are areas where the capitalist relation in agriculture has reached dominant position. Again there are areas where feudal and semi-feudal relations exist quite strongly. Throughout the country there is prevalence of usury capital and caste oppression exists.
2. C. Monopoly capitalism in India is much powerful and comprador-bureaucratic in nature. This comprador-bureaucratic capitalism has a relationship of both collaboration as well as contradiction with imperialism, though collaboration is the main aspect in general.

3. India has limited political independence. So it will be wrong to claim that it has full independence as that would negate the task of overthrowing imperialism from our country.

4. The principal enemies of the Indian revolution are Imperialism, Comprador Bureaucratic Capitalism and Landlordism.

5. The task of the Indian revolution is to overthrow imperialism, comprador bureaucratic capitalism and landlordism. These tasks are inter-related.

6. India is a state of comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie and the landlord classes, led by the comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie.

7. The leader of the Indian revolution is the working class. Peasantry is its firm ally, the urban petty-bourgeoisie is reliable ally and the national bourgeoisie is vacillating ally. In our country a process of polarization among the peasantry is taking place for a quite long time. The agricultural labourers and the landless and poor peasants are the most reliable allies of the working class and the greatest motive force of Indian revolution. The middle peasantry is a reliable ally and the rich peasants are the vacillating allies of the working class.

8. The character of the Indian revolution is bourgeois democratic in nature, not socialist. However, it is a new kind of democratic revolution which on the one hand will pave the way of capitalist development by uprooting imperialism, comprador bureaucratic capitalism and landlordism, and will pave the way of socialist revolution on the other. The inevitable culmination of this revolution will be the socialist revolution.

9. The Indian revolution will establish the democratic dictatorship of the Indian people under the leadership of the working class by overthrowing imperialism, comprador-bureaucratic capitalism and landlordism. The People’s Democratic Revolution of India is a part of World Proletarian Socialist Revolution.

10. The major contradictions in Indian society at present are imperialism vs. the Indian people, the peasantry vs. landlord class, capital vs. labour and the contradiction among the ruling classes. The principal contradiction is the alliance of imperialism, comprador-bureaucratic bourgeoisie and the landlord class vs. the broad masses of the people.

11. The path of Indian revolution will be determined by the concrete condition, the present socio-economic situation in India. The lessons of Russian and Chinese revolutions are obviously very much important for our revolution. However, in the concrete condition of our country, the working class will play a direct role while the Indian peasantry will also play its role. One of the important tasks of the Indian revolution is to overthrow imperialism and Indian monopoly capitalism and at the same time another important task is to overthrow all pre-capitalist relations in agriculture and distribute the land seized from the landlords to the agricultural labourers as well as to the landless and poor peasants on the basis of “land to the tiller”.

12. After the Second World War, the twin blows of socialist revolutions and national liberation revolutions compelled imperialism to change its colonial rule and exploitation and adopt neo-colonial method of exploitation and rule. Neo-colonialism started. In the course of this indirect rule of imperialism, neo-colonialism introduced many important changes which have brought about several crucial changes in the production relations of our country. This process has intensified in the phase of imperialist globalization. Our country is being connected even more intensely with the world imperialist system through finance capital, market and advanced technology.

13. In the phase of neo-colonialism, at one pole there are some big imperialist forces, the chief of which is American imperialism, while on the other pole there are neo-colonial countries. Between these two poles there lie various dependent countries. Apart from the above, there are some countries that lie outside this domain. One such example is Cuba, which is playing a role in turning Latin America from the backyard of US imperialism to an important area of struggle against US imperialism.

14. In the international arena in the place of uni-polar world, a multi-polar world has emerged. The contradiction among the imperialist forces has got intensified. The contradiction between the oppressed nations and people on one hand and imperialism, especially US imperialism, on the other has also got intensified. The contradiction between capital and labour is also intensified. However, balance of power is still inclined in favour of imperialism and the reactionaries and against the world people. The west wind still prevails over the east. In this situation the possibility of yet another world war remains, though there also exists factors to prevent it.

15. Revolution is the festival of the masses. Therefore, it is extremely important to find out the appropriate way to organise millions of people. For that, the first important requirement is the development of our Party and the consolidation of struggling left and democratic forces. In this course joint activities with the parliamentary left cannot be ruled out.

16. In the concrete situation in our country parliamentary struggle is one of the important struggles. Giving primary importance to extra-parliamentary struggle we must take the parliamentary struggle with due importance. For the development of extra-parliamentary struggles it is extremely important to use properly the platforms of parliament and assemblies.

17. In the interest of the revolutionary transformation of society, the activities of the party have to be organized in the direction of developing proper combination between legal and illegal, open and secret activities and between armed and unarmed struggles.

18. The BJP government is presently in power ruthlessly implementing neo-liberal policies. We need to unite all anti-neo-liberal forces against this onslaught. At the same time we need to resist the efforts of religious polarization and the efforts to convert India into a Hindu state. We need to fight against all sorts of communalism considering the Hindu communalism as the main danger.

19. The present situation in India demands such a Marxist-Leninist party to be evolved that can defeat the Indian variety of Menshevikism, whose representatives are CPIM, CPI etc and the Indian variety of Narodism, whose representatives are CPI (Maoist) like forces.

20. To consolidate all the anti-imperialist struggles of the world the unity among all the Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations throughout the world is required. Proletarian Internationalism demands that.

Along with the aforesaid points of unity we have some differences of opinion also. Those are as follows:
1. On different issues related to the concept of neo-colonialism.
2. The present situation of Indian agriculture.
3. On the comparative importance of the two aspects of democratic revolution, such as, imperialism and feudalism.
4. On Principal Contradiction
5. On the reorganization of Communist International
6. On united activities with CPI-CPIM.

There are also some points which need more discussion, exploration, study and exchange of opinions, such as:
1. On socialism and the experiences of socialist reconstruction.
2. On the history of international and national communist movement.
3. On the contradiction between imperialism and the Indian nation/people.

Large areas of unanimity on important issues related with Indian revolution direct us to be united into a single party. We have taken the decision to unite as Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Red Star. We firmly believe that today’s unity of these two organizations is only the “first step in a long march of ten thousand li”.

We appeal to all the communist revolutionary parties, organizations and individuals of India to intensify the process of building a real communist party at the all-India level.

Signed by KN Ramachandran, General Secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Red Star

Pradip Singh Thakur, Secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Red Flag

Dated: 2nd January, 2015

 

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