offensive
The AWTWNS packet for the week of 12 October 2009. They may be reproduced
or used in any way, in whole or in part, as long as they are credited.
To subscribe or for back issues and to read the AWTW NS weekly, go to
www.aworldtowin. org or http://uk.groups. yahoo.com/ group/AWorldToWi
nNewsService/
Write to us - send us information, comments, criticisms, suggestions and
articles: news@aworldtowin. org
. General strike in eastern & central India against looming anti-Maoist
offensive
------------ --------- --------- ---------
---
General strike in eastern & central India against looming anti-Maoist
offensive
12 October 2009. A World to Win News Service. The Communist Party (Maoist)
of India called a two-day bandh (general strike) throughout eastern and
central India beginning on 12 October against police atrocities and the
central government's plans to send a massive paramilitary force into the
forest areas where the party is leading a revolutionary upsurge among tribal
people and others.
According to initial reports by The Hindu and BBC, the armed shutdown was
especially strong in the states of Bihar, where all movement and markets
ceased in the rural areas, and Jharkhand, where rail and bus traffic and
coal mining stopped. Also said to be affected were Chhattisgarh,
Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. Some trains were redirected,
and the Railway Protection Force deployed along other lines.
The central government has announced that it will send 70,000 paramilitary
police, commandos and special forces units into seven states. Some 20,000
are to be sent to Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, where 35,000 troops are
already operating. (Christian Science Monitor, 6 October). The paramilitary
Border Security Force is to play a major role, under the protection of Air
Force helicopters. Indian government officials said their goals were to
"wipe out the top leadership" and secure some 40,0000 square kilometres of
territory now largely controlled by the Maoists. Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh soberly warned a September meeting of police chiefs that so
far the government's campaigns against the Naxalites, as Maoists are known
in India, had failed to produce results. (BBC, 9 October)
"I have consistently held that in many ways, left-wing extremism poses
perhaps the gravest internal security threat," he said. "I would like to say
frankly that we have not achieved as much success as we would have liked in
containing this menace." (The Hindu, 11 October)
As preparations for this central government offensive were underway,
guerrillas attacked a police station in Gadchiroli district in the western
state of Maharashtra, killing at least 17 police, including a "top
commander". (BBC, 8 October) It was the third major successful attack on
police units this year in this forest area near the Chhattisgarh border.
Preparations for the anti-Maoist offensive are being accompanied by a
campaign of government-paid advertisements in the newspapers to portray the
Maoists as heartless killers.
There have been some very serious arrests accompanied by such propaganda. On
5 October West Bengal police arrested two leading members of the
Revolutionary Democratic Front in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). They were
charged with ties with the CPI(Maoist), which was banned on a national level
in June.. Under the 2008 Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, people can be
imprisoned for guilt by association even though there are no specific
charges against them. Both men, Raja Sarkhel and Prasun Chatterjjee, are
well-known long-time West Bengal activists, said a 6 October press release
from the RDF (rdfindia@gmail. com). The two have been involved in the
movement against police atrocities in Lalgarh, a West Bengal area where
tribal people in the forests rose up at the end of last year under CPI(M)
leadership.
Earlier, on 26 September, police posing as journalists kidnapped Chhatradhar
Mahato, the prominent leader of the People's Committee Against Police
Atrocities in Lalgarh. The Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners
(185/3, Fourth Floor Zakir Nagar, New Delhi 25) said he was seized without
an arrest warrant and illegally held and tortured before being charged with
"20 to 22 cooked-up cases". This, too, was accompanied by an
officially-inspired vilification campaign against him in the media. The
CRPP emphasized that the authorities were trying to use these cases to
frighten Kolkata intellectuals who have notably supported the people of
Lalgarh, seeking "not only to demean the Lalgarh struggle but also to force
the intellectuals to disassociate themselves from the people's movement in
Lalgarh by constant threats of arrests and other forms of intimidation. "
As the article "Uprising in Lalgarh" in AWTWNS090629 explained, "Central
government troops and state police and militias are continuing the brutal
assault on the adivasis (tribal people) and the Communist Party of India
(Maoist) in and around Lalgarh in the West Midnapore area in the state of
West Bengal that began in mid June. Indian Air Force helicopters rained down
leaflets on the masses warning them not to support the Maoists. While the
repressive forces boast that they will achieve a quick victory, the
Maoist-led guerrillas melt away and reappear in other villages and forests
nearby Lalgarh with the support of the people. Urban intellectuals from
Kolkata who have gone to the Lalgarh area confirm that the armed forces are
beating and humiliating the masses in every way imaginable and herding them
into refugee camps.
"The area encompasses vast tracts of the forests of West Midnapore, Purulia
and Bankura districts of West Bengal and adjoins parts of the states of
Jharkhand and Orissa, where the CPI(Maoist) enjoys strong mass support.
Unrest in Lalgarh had been going on for a number of months, reaching a
boiling point last November with the arrests, torture and rape of women and
children after a bombing that almost killed a West Bengal chief minister.
The state has been dominated by a reactionary so-called Left Front led by
the Communist Party (Marxist). Decades ago this oppressor party abandoned
any semblance of Marxist or communist thinking and joined forces with the
Indian ruling classes to suppress and exploit the people and steal their
land. After making a series of demands, the tribal people of the area took
matters into their own hands, forcing out government agents and police.
CPI(Marxist) officials were run out of the villages and some killed. Their
offices as well as many police stations were torched. Trees were felled to
block roads and prevent security forces from re-entering the area.
"The CPI(Maoist) have broad support in the Lalgarh area due to their
uncompromising stand against rich landlords and corrupt officials. They
recently claimed the area as the first liberated zone in West Bengal."
For a condensed version of an article appearing in People's Truth on the
situation in Lalgarh area and background, see AWTWNS090629, or for the full
version, peoples-truth. googlepages. com
-end item-
__._,_.___
Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic
Messages
POST TO: MAOIST_REVOLUTION@yahoogroups.com
HOME:
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/MAOIST_REVOLUTION
Unified Communist Party Of Nepal(Maoist)
http://www.cpnmintl.org/
Philippine Revolution
http://www.philippinerevolution.net/
Revolution in South Asia - US based solidarity with Maoist Revolutionary
forces
http://southasiarev.wordpress.com/
REVOLUTION http://www.rwor.org
Indian Revolution
http://www.bannedthought.net/
http://www.bannedthought.net/India/CPI-Maoist-Docs/index.htm
* Communist Party of India (MAOIST)
Communist Party of India(ML)Naxalbari
http://www.thenaxalbari.blogspot.com/
REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNIST PARTY (CANADA)
http://www.pcr-rcp.ca ENGLISH
http://www.pcr-rcp.ca/fr/ FRENCH (Français)
Italian section:
Maoist Communist Party Of Italy
http://www.prolcom.altervista.org
Guerre Popolari (People's War)
http://www.prolcom.altervista.org/guerre_popolari.htm
Maoist Communist Party of Italy led - Red Block Youth blog
http://www.redblock-it.blogspot.com
Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/index.htm
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/index.htm
COMMUNIST PARTY OF IRAN(MARXIST_LENINIST_MAOIST)
http://www.sarbedaran.org/ Farsi
http://www.sarbedaran.org/language/index.htm English
Communist(Maoist)Party of Afghanistan (English)
http://www.sholajawid.org/
A World To Win AND R.I.M.
http://www.aworldtowin.org
A World to Win News Service, direct to your mail Box:
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/AWorldToWinNewsService/
To subscribe, click: aworldtowinnewsservice-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Servicio Noticioso Un Mundo Que Ganar (A World to Win News Service -
Spanish)
http://es.groups.yahoo.com/group/ServicioNoticioso_UMQG/
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format
to Traditional
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Recent Activity
8New Members
Visit Your Group
Give Back
Yahoo! for Good
Get inspired
by a good cause.
Y! Toolbar
Get it Free!
easy 1-click access
to your groups.
Yahoo! Groups
Start a group
in 3 easy steps.
Connect with others..
__,_._,___
