The divide between capitalists and workers, both politically and economically, is continuing to expand rapidly as we sink further into economic crisis.
Adding to the relative and absolute impoverishment of the working class in the material sense is the impoverishment of our minds. The most glaring example of our lack of class consciousness or of a Marxist understanding amongst Britain’s workers is all too apparent when we compare the prevailing social peace in the face of massive cuts in Britain with the dramatic fight-back that has been unfolding in the streets of Greece, Turkey and Spain in recent weeks and months. It is clear that we are suffering from a total malnourishment in theory and understanding.
The education of workers regarding the alternative to capitalism is hardly touched upon by our labour movement, and within the state schooling system it is conducted in no meaningful way whatsoever.
The education system works in tandem with the ‘justice’, media and religious establishments (to name but a few) to acclimatise us all to monotonous subordination and despair. The idea that another world is possible is never on the horizon. All of these institutions, it should be noted, are currently being removed from state control and placed into the hands of private owners in the hope that our parasitic ruling class can wring a few more drops of profit out of public institutions that have been bled white.
The purpose of schooling under capitalism is to train us for disciplined labour in the imperialist workforce – to instil us with the stamina to run on the hamster wheel of pointless employment (if we’re fortunate!) until we drop dead, or until we make it to some ever-receding ‘retirement’ age (assuming there will even be such a thing as a state pension by the time we make it to the age of 70!)
The modern curriculum seems to be saturated with mathematical equations whose usefulness is never made clear to us, with religious instruction that is utterly inane, and with repetitious emphasis on how to speak and spell ‘properly’ … even while we are given instruction in the works of William Shakespeare, who was famous for being the originator of so much English slang! How contradictory!
Our schools, and the whole grading and assessing system they buy into, teach us that we are only as good as the grades we receive on results day and the marks we are adjudged to have earned from our teachers. They teach us that the girl across the hall from you is better than you because the A* that she has received is better than your dismal C!
This is a system that inevitably benefits the bourgeoisie, and it is no coincidence that it does so. To earn your A* you must learn to be an excellent parrot – no individuality or criticism is permitted. Regurgitate your textbook onto your exam paper in order to demonstrate how Stalin killed all and sundry before brunch on an icy Russian winter’s morning. A* and place at university assured … along with access to a higher-paying job and a nicer level of life than might be open to some of your less fortunate friends.
But is the great Albert Einstein not proof that the current existing methods of assessment are incorrect, idealist and unfair? Poor old Albert was considered to be an ‘underachiever’ in school too!
Schools are not there to not teach us how to think critically, to pose alternative theories or to explore beyond the curriculum. Everyone has their own ways of thinking, their preferred learning strategies and their unique mix of abilities, yet we are taught, assessed and ranked through the same means.
The present exam system is a hegemonic ideological state apparatus enforced by the bourgeoisie. The whole purpose of exams is not to maintain standards but to ‘reward’ those with the right class background along with the most pliable working-class students with access to university places and jobs. It sets a pattern that is preparing us for our roles in society, all the while covertly teaching us to look down on people who earn less than we do because they must surely be ‘less intelligent’ or ‘less deserving’.
It’s important for us to realise that most people don’t get the grades they worked for so much as the grades their parents paid for. The entire public-school system is set up to make sure that A grades and access to Oxbridge are achieved as standard by anyone with a modicum of intelligence and pliability. Small class sizes, extra coaching, extra-curricular activities, internships, business and academic contacts and exam technique are all part of the package that ensure that the richest parents can expect their children to ‘achieve’ as expected.
To get the same grades as a state comp student requires far more discipline and motivation, especially if you come from a poor family where books and knowledge are not on tap at home and in which such attainment is not expected or planned for, either by your family or by your teachers. Yet still, to win this coveted prize requires students from all backgrounds to crush their critical faculties and teach themselves to become mouthpieces for the prevailing system – something that is far harder to do if your life experience is constantly teaching you that the system is not the ‘fair’, ‘democratic’ ‘meritocracy’ it pretends to be!
If schools endorsed the theories of Karl Marx, if they educated students on his revolutionary literature and explained the materialist conception of history, how quickly do we think the ‘great minds’ at the Department of Education would cry aloud that dictatorship and all the rest of it have long been done away with?
It is not that Marx’s theories are not relevant today or, as the bourgeoisie would have us believe, that ‘Marxism is dead’. Quite the opposite. The bourgeoisie are fully aware that his teachings are correct and that Marxism will never die while class society continues to exist. Indeed, they themselves desire to understand Marx’s ideas, the better to debunk them. Not a great house or public school in the country would be without complete without the works of Marx and Lenin on its shelves – but try finding them nowadays in your local library!
Unfortunately, all that working-class youth are likely to find on comprehensive or academy school shelves is Animal Farm, the objective of which is to hammer home that nonsensical view that ‘communism doesn’t work because everyone is naturally greedy and people won’t work together’. This ‘truth’ is handed down to us just 20 minutes before the next teacher tells us what a wonderful ‘Big Society’ we have in Britain, and how we all worked in common to bring understanding to the natives during the colonial era. What happy times.
Working-class youth needs to educate itself; to set its own programme and curriculum – one which reflects our life, our struggle and our conditions. Young people should educate themselves in the most advanced theory, Marxism Leninism. The CPGB-ML urges the youth of this nation to read the revolutionary and emancipating works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin so that they can prepare themselves to break out of the poverty and ignorance that has been assigned to them.
The youth of today is the wealth of tomorrow. Don’t let our school and our warped and class-ridden assessment system determine what you do with your life. Join the CPGB-ML, join Red Youth and be the change you want to see in the world. As Chairman Mao put it: “Dare to struggle; dare to win!” Or as Marx and Engels wrote in the Communist Manifesto 165 years ago: “Let the ruling classes tremble at a communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”
Fantastic article from latest Lalkar! Read it now!
100th Anniversary of the Ghadar movement – a salute to the forerunners of the Indian liberation struggle
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Ghadar movement. By way of a tribute, Lalkar is dedicating this long article to the memory of its founders and participants – the forerunners of India’s struggle for liberation from British colonialism. What follows is an attempt to give a brief history of the Ghadar movement – its origins, motivations, vision and scope, as well as its lasting contribution to India’s freedom struggle, its legacy and continuing significance to the struggle of the Indian masses for a people’s democratic revolution as an integral part of the movement for socialism through the overthrow of capitalism. Part I of this article appears in this issue. The remainder will follow in subsequent issues – Editor
India’s struggle against British rule is as long as that rule itself. The 1857 national revolt of the Indian people, known as the First War of Indian Independence was the most prominent of the earlier struggles to free India from the clutches of British rule. But the latest and most modern phase of India’s freedom movement begins in 1913 with the formation of the Ghadar Party – the Party of Revolt – by the Indian revolutionaries then living in Canada and the USA. With the formation of the Ghadar Party, the revolutionary movement in India took a giant step forward – for this Party was both internationalist and secular in its outlook. It recognised the importance of revolutionary work in the army with the aim of inciting the latter to revolt against British imperialist rule, and overwhelmingly drew its members from peasants turned factory workers, unlike earlier revolutionaries who had by and large belonged to the privileged classes.
The Ghadar movement, although cruelly suppressed by the British imperial authorities, left a rich revolutionary legacy and made an indelible mark on the freedom movement, inspiring a whole generation of revolutionaries with its courage and self-sacrificing heroism. It produced a weekly publication, Ghadar, the very first issue of which boldly declared:
” Today there begins in foreign lands a war against the British Raj. What is our name? Mutiny. What is its work? Mutiny. Where will mutiny break out? In India. The time will soon come when rifles and blood will take the place of pen and ink.”
From time to time, Ghadar published the following advertisement in its columns:
” Wanted – enthusiastic and heroic soldiers for organising Ghadar in Hindustan. Remuneration – death; Reward – martyrdom; Pension – freedom; Field of work – Hindustan”.
The Ghadarites faced the gallows and firing squads with indomitable courage.
One of the youngest of the Ghadarites, Kartar Singh Sarabha, courted death with these words:
” I will get life imprisonment or capital punishment. But I will prefer the latter so that after rebirth I may again be prepared for the struggle for India’s freedom. I will die again and again till India becomes free. This is my last wish”.
In 1849 Punjab was conquered by the East India Company. Eight years later, the First War of Indian Independence broke out. This revolt of 1857 failed because of the betrayal by feudal chieftains and the help of the Sikh armies just as the British were being driven out of Delhi.
Punjab was crucial to British rule after 1857. Though constituting a mere one-thirteenth part of Indian territory, it supplied 60% of the soldiers in the British Indian army. It was the fear of the British rulers that a vibrant social, educational or political movement in the province might assume mass proportions and infect the army, thus undermining the chief pillar of British rule – hence the all-consuming concern of the authorities to isolate the army from any outside political influence.
To keep India British, Punjab had to be kept tranquil, which in turn required Punjab to be kept in a state of cultural, educational, social and political backwardness.
One of the directors of the East India Company, which ruled India prior to 1857, had bemoaned the fact that Britain had lost America through the folly of allowing the establishment of schools and colleges in that former colony, a mistake which must on no account be repeated in India. Therefore any Indian requiring to be educated had to go to England to study. The British government which took over from the East India Company after 1857 continued this policy, although it could never be completely applied since, on the one hand, there was a need for loyal and obedient clerks to run the administration, and on the other, Christian missionary education and proselytisation provoked a response on the part of the Indians to put in place some form of education. However, the British rulers did not even trust the chief Khalsa Diwan leaders, loyal though they were to the British, to provide elementary education through proper teachers for the younger and rising Sikh generation, for that might be a potential source of mischief – even active danger. If the alternative was that there be no imparting of even elementary education, then so be it. Its policy was to keep the Punjabis poor, illiterate and backward.
The government undertook the publication of books for the distortion of the Sikh religion, with the aim of inspiring loyalty to the British, flattering them with the characterisation of being the bravest, most loyal and devoted subjects of the British crown.
Even the ultra-loyal leaders of the Chief Khalsa Diwan were suspect, for no other reason than that they had discussed questions such as unity, sacrifice for the nation, the degraded state of the Sikhs, the conversion of untouchables to Sikhism, imparting education to Sikh children, reforming non-Sikh practices among Sikhs and their temples. The British insisted on just one loyalty – to the Crown.
Why emigrate?
Punishing land revenues, heavy indirect taxation, fragmentation of land holdings and indebtedness to money lenders had worsened the conditions of the Punjabi peasantry during the second half of the 19th century. There were no opportunities for employment other than recruitment into the army, which brought a life of extreme risk in return for the measly sum of 9-10 rupees a month.[1]
Ultimately it was conditions of extreme poverty which forced emigration, some people forced out by their inability to pay land revenue and other taxes, direct and indirect, while some sought the means to pay off their debts to the usurer classes, or simply to improve their economic conditions.
The soldiery in Punjab was recruited from the impoverished peasantry, which accounted for over 70% of the Punjab’s population. Dissatisfied with their lot in the army, a considerable number of them resigned and went abroad to improve their economic conditions. Approximately 90 per cent of those who went to Canada and the US were old soldiers of the British Army, with very few others emigrating.
In addition, a small number of politically conscious people, who had been involved in the 1906-07 struggle of the peasantry against the Colonisation Act, such as Ajit Singh (uncle to Bhagat Singh) and Lala Lajpat Rai, also fled abroad to escape arrest and torture at the hands of the colonial authorities.
Initially, these hunger-driven people went to Malaysia, Singapore, and China – in many cases recruited in these places into the British police or simply working as watchmen for rich Chinese or Malay merchants, or as guards or railway workers.
In the port cities of these countries to which they first emigrated they encountered visitors from Canada and America, heard stories regarding the prosperity of those latter countries, and information that the wages of even unskilled workers over there were ten times those they received in non-white colonies. This is what took them to Canada, a British colony, and the US. Many resigned from the army so as to be able to travel abroad in search of better employment.
” Thousands of adventurous Sikhs … from 1907 onwards emigrated in increasing numbers to the Far East, the Pacific coast of Canada and the US, many of them old soldiers … to better their lot (Sir Michael O’Dwyer, India as I knew it, Constable, London, 1925, p.190).
These emigrants were loyal British subjects who had fought in Britain’s wars of expansion and expected to be greeted with open arms in the British colony of Canada. Instead of being treated with courtesy and respect, however, they were showered with hate, insults and discrimination. It took a while for them to realise why and shed their earlier illusions about the British rulers of India having been the instruments of peace, justice and the rule of law.
The reality of life in Canada, where they faced humiliation at every turn, shattered their illusions and transformed these labourers, slowly but surely, into defiant and proud individuals, staunch freedom fighters, willing to sacrifice their all in the cause of India’s liberation from the jackboot of British colonial rule.
By 1908, approximately 5,200 Indians had reached Canada, while the number of Chinese and Japanese immigrants, who had been entering Canada for tens of years prior to that, stood at over 50,000.
Physically well built, most Punjabis took up the lumber trade which requires hefty men. Coming from a farming background, many took to farming as farm labourers – in a few cases even becoming owners of farms. Still others worked as carpenters, weavers, mechanics, or electricians. As the restrictive practices of the trade unions in Canada barred them from working at the trades in which they were skilled, they took any jobs that were available to them. The Indians were almost entirely concentrated in British Colombia and worked mainly in Vancouver and Victoria and on the farms in the neighbouring areas. They built a Sikh temple (gurdwara) in each of these cities and held property worth $300,000 in Victoria and $200,000 in Vancouver
Opposition to immigration
As the number of Asians began to assume sizeable proportions, opposition to immigration raised its ugly head under the slogan ‘Preserve Canada as a white man’s land’, with use of racial hatred and labour competition as weapons for the achievement of this demand.
The Canadian government was only too willing to oblige, being motivated by the political consideration that, by mixing with the local white population, the Asians, especially the Indians, would acquire notions of racial equality and self government and thus undermine British rule in India and other Asian colonies.
The British government, acting behind the scenes, fully backed the actions of the Canadian authorities to attempt to exclude altogether the entry of Indians into Canada, regarding it as both natural and desirable for economic, social, political and national reasons that Canada should remain a white man’s country. Canada as a self-governing dominion was the best judge of it, according to the British government.
In her 1858 declaration, following the suppression of the 1857 First War of Indian Independence, Queen Victoria had proclaimed: ” we hold ourselves bound to the natives of our Indian territories by the same obligations of duty which bind us to all our subjects”. Naively, Indians put great faith in the bona fides of this proclamation, which was merely a means of hoodwinking and deceiving the Indian masses, although British statesmen knew very well that the Queen’s pledges were to be honoured in their breach, and that the expectations roused by her could never be fulfilled.
For all practical purposes, Indian entry into Canada was barred.
Indians had begun reaching the US about the same time as they entered Canada, first arriving in the US in 1904. Before 1907, there were very few Indians in the US, and most of those were not of a labouring category. In that year, 1,072 Indians were admitted into the country, while 1908 saw the admission of an additional 1,710. Soon after that, the immigration authorities became very restrictive, in the wake of anti-Indian riots in the US and Canada. In spite of these restrictions, Indians found a back door to the US through the Philippines.
What awakened the consciousness of the Indians in Canada and the US was the far better treatment meted out by the authorities in Canada to Chinese and Japanese immigrants who, unlike the Indians, were not even British subjects. Not only did the Japanese and Chinese have much easier entry into Canada, they were allowed to bring their wives and children with them, or send for them after securing employment; they were allowed to acquire citizenship and voting rights. Unlike them “the Hindus” (a term used at that time for all Indians, be they Hindu, Muslim or Sikh) had no such facilities.
It was not long before it dawned upon the Indians that they were the target of hatred, contempt and discrimination for the sole reason that they were a subject people; that the slavery of their motherland lay at the root of all their problems; that, therefore, the sooner they got rid of it the better, for without freeing India from the brutal British rule, the Indians would never be treated as equals anywhere. Their incipient realisation of this truth was greatly helped by their abode in countries which were permeated with ideas of various bourgeois freedoms and liberties. The combined effect of being discriminated against and the acquisition of ideas of freedom and liberty was to turn these loyal British subjects into rebels and implacable foes of British colonialism and imperialism.
What alarmed the Canadian intelligence services was that certain Indians from the Punjab and Bengal had reached Canada, brought out newspapers which linked the problems faced by Indian immigrants to India’s subject status. What is more, their propaganda was finding fertile ground among the badly-treated Indians in North America.
One such politically enlightened Punjabi, Ramnath Puri, having reached America at the end of 1906, established in early 1907 a Hindustan Association (HA) in San Francisco with branches in Vancouver and elsewhere. The principal condition for membership of the HA was that the members would rid themselves of prejudice based on caste, colour and creed. It published in the Urdu language a periodical named Circular-i-Azadi (‘Circular of Freedom’) which the authorities quite correctly perceived to be of a “seditious character”. It published articles calculated to instil feelings of hatred and contempt for the British Raj in India.
The Bengali revolutionary, Taraknath Das, was involved in this movement and, after the closure of Circular-i-Azadi, began the publication of his English language monthly, Free Hindustan. A capable leader, he had been a member of the first revolutionary society formed in Calcutta in 1903. He reached San Francisco and joined Berkeley University as a student.
Fighting against the British subjugation of India, Free Hindustan embarked upon the road of imparting education to the Indians in Canada and California with the aim of preparing them for the struggle to liberate India.
At the time, the number of Indians in Canada and the US had reached nearly 10,000, of whom 95% were Sikhs. Most of these sturdy peasants from the Punjab were disciplined men with military backgrounds and training. The political campaigners did not fail to remember the bitter truth that the revolt of 1857 had failed because of, inter alia, the military support extended by the Punjabis, principally the Sikhs under the leadership of their treacherous feudal princes. They therefore well understood that any rebellion in the future had no chance of success unless the Punjabis joined the revolutionary forces. Hence their emphasis on instilling in the Punjabi workers a sense of burning hatred for British rule and on making them conscious in order to play an active part in the movement for India’s liberation. Besides, these workers, hailing from the Punjab and with a military background, had valuable contacts with Indian troops and regiments, which could prove crucial to the success of any uprising against the British.
In the conditions in which the Indian immigrants were living, such ideas proved extremely infectious. As soon as they grasped these ideas, the Indians began to be consumed by a burning desire to free India. One by one, those with a military history concluded that the medals won by them through their service in the British army ought to be regarded as ‘medals of slavery’, that these medals signified that they had fought as mercenaries for the British against the cause of their own countrymen or various free peoples. As such, these medals, buttons, uniforms or insignia should never be worn but discarded. Some publicly threw away their medals, while others made a bonfire of their certificates of honourable discharge from the British army. The Sikh veterans in Vancouver pointedly turned down the city mayor’s invitation to attend a military review staged in honour of the Governor-General’s visit.
Though mostly uneducated, the Sikh peasants had learned through hard experience much that the educated Indians, who were then busy being servile to British imperialism, had not learned. The rising level of political consciousness of the Indian immigrants was the most important consideration weighting on the governments of Britain, Canada and India in their determination to bar the entry of more Indians into Canada. Various devices were used to this effect. Only those Indians who arrived directly from India were to be admitted. And, since there was no direct route from India to Canada, this rule operated, as was intended, to prevent Indian immigration altogether. Even members of the families of Indians owning land in Canada had to have on them $200 (a very large sum for those times) each. While other British subjects could acquire the right to vote after 6 months’ residence, the Indians were denied such a right. Since the Indians were not denied this right in the US, Germany or Japan, they could not but conclude that they were better off in foreign countries than in British territory.
TO BE CONTINUED.
NOTE 1
In India as a whole, consequent upon its conquest by the East India Company, the entire framework of Indian society had been broken down, ” without any symptoms of reconstitution yet appearing” (Karl Marx, British Rule in India, 10 June 1853).
Marx went on to point out that from immemorial times there were three departments of government in Asia: ” that of finance, or the plunder of the interior; that of war, or the plunder of the exterior; and finally the department of public works”, without which agriculture is impossible in Asia. As Marx noted, the East India Company willingly accepted from the previous Moghal regime the department of finance and of war, but completely ignored that of public works, which caused deterioration of agriculture to an unheard of extent. In addition the British rulers went on to break up Indian industry, reducing the masses of Indians to utter destitution and overdependence on land. It is hardly surprising then that these conditions should produce epidemics and famines which swept away tens of millions of people – a question which will have to be discussed elsewhere.
To be continued….
Ghadar Party Centenary Celebration
Public Meeting
Saturday, 20th July 2013 at 3pm
Venue : Handsworth Leisure Centre
Holly Road,Handsworth, Birmingham B20 2BY
Dear Members and Sympathisers,
Indian Workers Association Great Britain (Birmingham and Sandwell Branch) is organising this public meeting to pay tribute to martyrs of the Ghadar movement who fought and laid down their lives for the independence of India from the British rule. Ghadar Party was founded on April 21, 1913 in San Francisco, America. It played a glorious role in organizing struggles like the Komagata Maru voyage for the equal rights of immigrants of all countries and mobilizing powerful militant resistance to imperialism (British Rule) with a brave action of a voyage to liberate their motherland, India. The IWA,GB recalls with pride and salutes the memory of the hundreds of martyrs who were sent to the gallows and 64 who were sent to the Andaman Cellular jail (Kalepani) for life. Their fearless example raised hopes of defeating imperialism at its most savage.
Speakers
· Comrade Mangat Ram Pasla- Trustee-Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall, Jalandhar
· Darbara Singh Dhillon-President-Desh Bhagat Yadgar Committee, Jalandhar
· Avtar Jouhl-General Secretary, Indian Workers Association, Great Britain
· Harpal Brar-Fraternal Relations Secretary , IWA GB
· Mohd Idrish-Bangladeshi community
· Javed Iqbal-Pakistani community
Cultural Programme : Progressive singers and poets will perform on the day. Light Refreshments will be provided between 2.30pm to 3pm
Organised by : Indian Workers Association ( G.B ) B’ham & Sandwell Branch,
346 Soho Road, Handsworth, Birmingham B21 9QL
Red Youth and Birmingham CPGB-ML supported the call of West Mids PSC to support a demo to raise awareness of the plight of political prisoner’s. The purpose was to raise the profile of Irish and Palestinian political prisoner’s in particular. Despite West Mids PSC declaring its support for the rally, it seems on the day the weather got the better of them. Perhaps a BBQ took precedence, or maybe some other vital work, like verbal masturbation at some University/college Professor’s house… maybe they were too busy spreading rumours of anti-semitism to other ultra-left, trotskyite groups who make out they are anti-racist/anti-imperialist. Either way, true anti-imperialists staged an excellent march and rally. Shame on those who profess their devotion to the liberation of the Palestinians but declare actual Palestinian revolutionaries and fighters against imperialism to be anti-semitic. These people whistle loud but are never seen out in Birmingham unless its a state-sponsored/TUC love-in.
Yorkshire red youth helped out at the Leeds Keep Our NHS Public over the weekend and a fantastic demonstration was held outside Virgin media (just one of the companies looking to benefit from the privatisation of the NHS). Further demonstrations will be taking place this coming weekend and the national conference is in London on 13 July. Check out http://www.keepournhspublic.com and be sure to support the campaigns!
Friday 5 July – Coventry “happy birthday NHS” Upper Precinct (by Costa) 12.30pm
Friday 5th July – “hands around the Trafford” demo outside Trafford General 1pm www.savetraffordgeneral.com
Saturday 6 July – “happy birthday NHS” demo Bolton @ 11.30-12.30pm Fred Dibnah statue
and many many more here
Privatisation and profiteering
Those who attempt to defend the last Labour government’s record on the NHS typically point to the increase in funding from 1999. But while some of that money did go to frontline care, this actually occurred only as an accidental and temporary trickle-down side effect of the real policies driving increased spending at that time: the likes of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) that sought easy profit opportunities for big business by mortgaging NHS assets to private banking consortia.
While the huge increase in public funding for the NHS (from £49bn in 1999/2000 to £119bn in 2009/10) that this covert privatisation process entailed was temporarily sustainable during the last decade’s cheap credit boom, the capitalist economy’s catastrophic tailspin into global recession means this is quite clearly no longer the case.
This is the rationale behind the ongoing so-called ‘Nicholson Challenge’ for the NHS to make £20bn-worth of cuts in ‘efficiency savings’ by 2015. And let us remember that this target of £20bn was announced to leading NHS doctors before the ConDem government was elected – ie, by the last Labour government.
If decency and common sense governed political decisions in Britain, these savings and more could easily be made by targeting the obvious source of the gross inefficiency that has caused NHS spending to spiral out of control in the first place: ie, by cancelling PFI debt and removing all private-sector involvement in the running of the NHS.
But capitalism does not quite work that way; and so wards and whole hospitals are closed and clinical staff thrown out of work so that corporate interests can continue to profit out of the NHS.
The media spin that persists in its weasel attempts to invert this reality, blaming spiralling NHS spending on an ageing population, or rising patient expectations, or the mythical ‘inherent inefficiency of the public sector’ should fool no-one. The US healthcare system is entirely privately-owned, and is the most expensive and inefficient in the developed world, costing $6,719 per person per year while leaving 50+ million Americans uninsured and millions more seriously underinsured.
The socialist alternative
In stark contrast, socialist Cuba’s health system, entirely publicly-owned, is able to provide free comprehensive health care for all at a cost of only $362 per person per year, achieving population health statistics rivalling and even surpassing those of developed countries.
The difference? At no point in the Cuban system is there anybody who is driving up costs by making a profit. Moreover, the fact that the state is the sole provider of health care avoids the obscenely wasteful duplication, cherry-picking, and poor coordination of services that inevitably arise when multiple inter-competing private providers are involved.
Though Cuba’s healthcare achievements are relatively well-known these days, it is less widely recognised that the inspiration for the Cuban system was that of the Soviet Union; still less that the Soviet system – as the world’s first free universal healthcare system – also served as the model for Britain’s NHS itself.
Though Labour are invariably credited as the benefactors of the NHS, the fact is that the NHS was effectively a concession made by British capitalism due to the relative strength of the working class in the aftermath of the triumph of Soviet socialism in the second world war.
Many things have changed since then. The collapse of the USSR has meant that British capitalism no longer feels compelled to make such concessions to workers to deter them from revolution. Moreover, the profits from reconstruction of industry that fuelled the post-war boom have long since dried up, with capitalists increasingly turning to the option of easy taxpayer-funded bonanzas arising from the privatisation of public services: utilities, railways, education … and the NHS.
Since the end of the post-war boom, Labour governments have been just as complicit as the Tories in the slow liquidation of the NHS. It was the Callaghan administration of 1976-79 that began the process of hospital closures, while the Blair government not only kept the Tories’ internal market but further accelerated NHS privatisation by transforming NHS Trusts into ‘Foundation’ Trusts – embryonic private hospitals.
The lesson of history is clear: the problem is not merely the HASC Bill and subsequent regulations, to be resolved simply by getting rid of Lansley, Hunt or Cameron, or – God forbid – by voting Labour at the next election, but the whole rotten capitalist system, which, in its insatiable desire for profit, will continue its merciless attack on the living standards of working-class people until it itself is overthrown.
A day when people come together to celebrate Britishimperialism
This year it was like any other, events up and down the country filled with flag waving members of the working class, and in Manchester a delusional youth cadet force who believe that they are fighting for “our freedom”. CPGB-ML north west regional members arrived in Manchester to leaflet on topics like the NHS and the Bedroom tax; comrades always do this at the public area of Piccadilly gardens. When we went into Piccadilly gardens comrades hadn’t even given out a leaflet when members were harassed by private security. One very brave private security guard of 30 squared up to one of our 16 year old youth members and pushed him back out of Piccadilly gardens without even asking them to leave. We oppose all thuggish behaviour by these corporate ‘police’. To make things worse some women then came to our comrades shouting abuse at them, comrades tried to explain that they were campaigning on the NHS but the women were adamant they were there “disrespecting the soldiers”! When comrades asked how they were “disrespecting the soldiers” no reply was given and they just walked off looking upset that there were no ‘lefties’ to bash, insult or scream at. A man who claimed he was an ex-soldier then squared up to our younger comrades and made threats, with the public passers-by watching, the comrade refused to leave the public space which only made this man even more angry! Once more our members patiently explained they were giving out NHS leaflets which were even handed to him! He either had difficulty reading or he had no time for reasoned argument and seemed not to care a jot! Our comrades were pushed, and one young member had his glasses broken!
We would like to take this moment to say thanks to the elderly women and other members of the public who stepped in and confronted this mad man and these thugs. The behaviour of the cadets was as shocking as it was pitiful as they stood laughing at the man being confrontational, with one member of the public even turning to the cadets and saying “Shame on you”.
When the situation died down we spoke to the cadets who claimed they support freedom and that soldiers fight for freedom! Despite their love of freedom they insisted they had a right to have us thrown out of a public space! The hypocrisy from these brave defenders of freedom is plain for all to see!
Another year, another Hollywood superhero blockbuster. A film about someone with superpowers who takes down petty criminals, local gangs and the occasional super villain. The bourgeoisie has to keep us spoon fed on this kind of “culture”.
But what about real super heroes? Men and women who have given their lives in the struggle against fascism, for medicine, for science and reason over idealism and superstition. Where are the films about these heroes? Where are the Blockbusters which reflect the real life superhuman struggles of working class and oppressed people to take control of their own destiny?
Champions of the working class, men like Stalin and the Bolsheviks are the heroes for red youth. Stalin realised, unlike Superman, that the bourgeoisie’s constant willingness to cause death and destruction and poverty to pursue their own economic interests was a much worse form of criminality than the occasional act of petty theft or super villain smugness. He understood that the real super villain, the rel arch criminal was the system of imperialism itself which commits daily genocide by allowing thousands to perish of hunger and disease whilst a tiny set of parasites lives off our backs. Fundamentally, Stalin understood that ceasing to make greed a virtue in society would mean less greed, and that taking care of people’s basic needs – such as food, education, and housing – formed the foundations of a healthy, fulfilled society. Thus, he followed the Marxist train of thought: that the rule of the bourgeoisie is the rule of the greedy and corrupt, and that the removal of the bourgeoisie from their position of power and the elimination of their influence meant the removal of greed and corruption.
To understand and act on this required no special powers, only an understanding of Marxism-Leninism and the determination to create a society that worked for the proletariat rather than against them.
The CPGB-ML was the only British party to attend this year’s International Communist Seminar. Harpal Brar delivered the message from the CPGB-ML to the 22nd seminar held in Brussels and organised by the Workers Party of Belgium. The theme this year was “the attacks on the democratic rights and freedoms in the world capitalist crisis“. Harpal’s words can be read here and the speeches and presentations from all the parties can be found at the website of the ICS 2013.
A similar talk was prerpared and given by Harpal at the conference organised recently by the comrasdes from the PRCF in France. That video can be seen here:
The seminar organised by the comrades from the PTB was attended by the parties listed below. Red Youth urges all readers to visit the site of the ICS and study these documents in detail:
1. Afghanistan, People’s Party of Afghanistan
2. Algeria, Parti Algérien pour la Démocratie et le Socialisme (PADS)
3. Azerbaijan, Communist Party of Azerbaijan
4. Belarus, Belarussian Communist Workers’ Party
5. Belgium, Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB)
6. Bénin, Parti Communiste du Bénin
7. Brazil, Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB)
8. Brazil, Partido Patria Livre (PPL)
9. Bulgaria, Party of Bulgarian Communists
10. Colombia, Colombian Communist Party
11. Cuba, Communist Party of Cuba
12. Cyprus, Progressive Party of the Working People (AKEL)
13. Denmark, Communist Party of Denmark
14. Denmark, Danish Communist Party
15. France, Union des Révolutionnaires Communistes de France (URCF)
16. France, Pôle de Renaissance Communiste en France (PRCF)
17. Germany, German Communist Party (DKP)
18. Greece, Communist Party of Greece (KKE)
19. Hungary, Hungarian Workers’ Party
20. Iran, Tudeh Party of Iran
21. Ireland, Workers’ Party of Ireland
22. Laos, Lao People’s Revolutionary Party
23. Latvia, Socialist Party of Latvia
24. Lebanon, Lebanese Communist Party
25. Lithuania, Socialist People’s Front
26. Luxembourg, Communist Party of Luxembourg (KPL)
27. Malta, Communist Party of Malta
28. Mexico, Partido Popular Socialista de México
29. Netherlands, New Communist Pary of Netherlands (NCPN)
30. Palestine, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
31. Palestine, Palestinian Communist Party
32. Philippines, Communist Party of the Philippines
33. Portugal, Portuguese Communist Party
34. Russia, Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF)
35. Russia, Communist Party of the Soviet Union
36. Russia, Russian Communist Workers’ Party – CPSU
37. Serbia, New Communist Party of Yugoslavia
38. South Sudan, Communist Party of South Sudan
39. Spain, Communist Party of Spain
40. Spain, Spanish Communist Workers’ Party (PCOE)
41. Spain, Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE)
42. Sri Lanka, People’s Liberation Front – JVP
43. Sweden, Communist Party (KP)44. Switzerland, Parti Suisse du Travail
45. Tunisia, Parti des Patriotes et Démocrates Uni
46. Turkey, Communist Party of Turkey (TKP)
47. Turkey, Labour Party (EMEP)
48. Ukraine, Union of Communists
49. United Kingdom, Communist Party of Great-Britain – Marxist-Leninist
50. USA, Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO)
51. Venezuela, Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV)
52. Vietnam, Communist Party of Viet Nam
Red Youth and cpgb-ml comrades helped out with a loud PA and plenty of enthusiasm at a demonstration in support of the Turkish people who have come out in defense of their democratic rights in the face of a brutal onslaught by the AKP-led government. In solidarity with the Communist Party TKP we publish below some photographs from our demonstration, the statement of the TKP and the details of a public meeting organised for Friday 7 June.
Public Meeting: Understanding Gezi Park, the AKP, and the Turkish protest movement
Main speaker: Turkish journalist and NUJ activist Oz Shengulun
Friday 7 June 2013
6.45pm – 8.15pm
274 Moseley Road, Highgate, Birmingham, B12 0BS
This meeting is kindly hosted by community advocacy service United We Stand [Served by the Number 50 bus from town every 5 minutes: stop outside Birmingham Car Auctions opposite Old Fire Station]
With the unprecedented wave of violence unleashed upon demonstrators in Istanbul and around Turkey, many are now asking “why the bloodshed?” Oz Shengulun is a freelance Turkish journalist based in Birmingham where she is an active member of Birmingham NUJ. She is speaking in a personal capacity. The presentation will be followed by Q&A and general discussion.
DECLARATION BY THE CC OF TKP:
THE CHOICE FOR THE WORKING CLASS WILL CERTAINLY BE CREATED
1. For days now Turkey is witnessing a genuine popular movement. The actions and protests, which have started in Istanbul and spread all over Turkey have a massive, legitimate and historic character. The most important of all is the striking change in the mood of people. The fear and apathy has been overcome and people gained self-confidence.
2. The Communist Party of Turkey has been part of the popular movement beginning from the first day and mobilized all its forces, tried to embolden the proletarian and revolutionary character of the movement, endeavored to pervade a mature attitude of discipline, organized numerous actions and demonstrations. In this process, the police forces carried out a heavy assault on our party headquarters in Ankara. All over Turkey, several party members have been injured and arrested. There have been some attempts of abduction of our party cadres. But the attempts of provocations against our party defeated.
3. Our emphasis on the role of the TKP does not aim to underestimate the spontaneous nature of the movement or contribution of the other political actors. On the contrary, the TKP stressed that this movement has an aspect that is beyond the impact of any political actor or any kind of political opportunism.
4. The call of the masses for the government to resign is an absolute truth of this movement. Although it is obvious that a leftist alternative cannot be built ‘right now’, this demand should be expressed loudly. This option for the working people can be generated only through benefitting from the energy that came out at this historical moment. The TKP will focus on this and expose the real meaning of alternatives like “the formation of a national government”, which will most likely be put forward to deceive the working masses into thinking that the crisis can be overcome that way.
5. Without a doubt, the holders of political power will try to calm the people down, institute control and even attempt to use the situation to their advantage. They can have temporary achievements. Even in that case the popular movement would not be wasted. The TKP is ready for a period of stubborn but intense struggle.
6. In order to act in concert, different branches of the socialist movement sharing similar goals and concerns need to evaluate the rise of this popular movement immediately. The TKP, without interrupting its daily missions and activities, is going to act responsibly regarding this issue and endeavor for the creation of a common ground in line with the urgent demands below.
7. In order to nullify the plans of the government to classify and divide the popular movement as legitimate and illegitimate, all forces need to avoid the steps that might cause damage to the legitimacy of the movement. It is the political power that attacks. The people should defend themselves as well as their rightful action but never fall into the provocation trap of the government.
8. While the masses are chanting the slogan “government, resign”, the negotiations limited to the future of the Taksim-Gezi Park are meaningless. The government pretends not to understand the fact that the old balances has been upset fundamentally and cannot be restored. Everybody knows that the popular movement is not the product of susceptibility towards the trees in the Gezi Park. The anger of the people is over the urban transformation projects, the terror of the market, open direct interventions in different lifestyles, the Americanism and the subordination to the US, the reactionary policies, the enmity towards the Syrian people. The AKP cannot deceive the people with a discourse of “we will plant more trees than the ones that we will chop down.”
9. While rolling up our sleeves in order to create an alternative of the working people, the movement needs to lean on certain concrete demands. These demands are valid in the in the case of the resignation of the government or of Erdogan:
a) The government must announce that the projects that involve the demolishment of the Gezi Park and of the Ataturk Cultural Center are terminated.
b) Those who were taken in custody during the resistance must be released and all charges against them must be dropped immediately.
c) All officials whose crimes against the people are proven by the reports of the commissions that are formed by the Union of Bar Associations and local bar associations must be relieved of their duties.
d) The attempts that hinder the right of the people to get true news on the developments must be stopped.
e) All prohibitions regarding meetings, demonstrations and marches must be repealed.
f) All de facto or de jure obstacles that lock the political participation of the people, including the 10 per cent election threshold and the anti-democratic articles of the ‘law on political parties’, must be abolished.
g) All initiatives that attempt to impose a monotype life style to all people must be stopped.
10. These urgent demands will in no case affect our right and duty to continue the opposition against the political power. The People’s reaction to the government must be reinforced, and efforts must be concentrated to bring about a real alternative in the political scene.
11. The star and the crescent Turkish flag that was intended to be used to provide a shield for reactionary and chauvinist attacks against laborers, leftists, Kurdish people after the fascist military coup of September 12, 1980, has now been grasped by the People from the hands of fascism, and given to the honorable hands of Deniz Gezmiş and his comrades, as a flag in the hands of patriotic people.
12. The People’s movement, ever since the beginning, has persistently let down the sinister strategy to play one community against another in Turkey. This attitude must carefully be maintained, leaving no room for chauvinism or vulgar nationalism.
13. Appealing to our Kurdish brothers and sisters, we had already declared that “There can be no peace agreement with AKP”. There can be no deal with a political power to which its own People have turned their back, and the true face of which has been revealed. Kurdish politics must give up “cherishing hopes of proceeding further with AKP”, and become a strong constituent of a united, patriotic and enlightened laborer People’s movement.
14. Our citizens who have lost their lives through the hands of the police force of the political power, have sacrificed their lives in the name of a just and historical struggle. The People are never going to forget their names, and those who are responsible for their death will pay the price before law.
Central Committee
Communist Party of Turkey
4 June 2013
All the good intentions in the world can’t cure hunger and illiteracy. Numerous reports and scientific discoveries by NGO’s and Charities prove quite clearly that capitalism is bad for your health, sanity, education and all round wellbeing! The latest report from Save the Children reaffirms what we already knew – but if we’re serious about ending hunger and illiteracy then we need to end the system which creates these evils; monopoly capitalism viz. Imperialism!The following has been written by a Red Youth and Communist Party activist as comment on the news story reported by the BBC here.
Last year, in May 2012, Save the Children declared in their pamphlet “Nutrition in the First 1,000 Days” that “The focus is on the 171 million children globally who do not have the opportunity to reach their full potential due to the physical and mental effects of poor nutrition in the earliest months of life.” A year on, Save The Children has issued a new report indicating a direct link between malnutrition and illiteracy and has vowed to take their message, with the backing of some recognized big-wig authors, to London on June 8 for the G8 “summit on global nutrition”. Leading campaigner Julia Donaldson has declared, “Leaders attending this summit have a golden opportunity to stop this. They must invest more funding to tackle malnutrition if we are to stop a global literacy famine.” (BBC, Authors back ‘malnutrition hits literacy’ study – 28/5/13)
All socialists and progressives will be quick to agree with both the general findings of the report and condemn the scourge of hunger and illiteracy. Indeed we commend and salute the authors for bringing such crimes against humanity to the attention of the world’s media. But what must be understood is that this “golden opportunity” perceived by Save the Children, Ms. Donaldson and many supporters, is doomed to abject failure and is nothing but badly misguided good faith on their part. We expect absolutely nothing more than bureaucratic blubber and crocodile tears from the leaders of the G8; for malnourishment and illiteracy are not mere unfortunate side effects of imperialism’s worldwide operation, they are in fact the integral and logical results of monopoly capital’s drive for maximum profit and the inevitable product of a system that protects the private individual accumulation of wealth, a wealth that has been created through hard work of millions of workers in the fields, farms and factories, a wealth stolen and concentrated in the hands of the few.
Illiteracy & imperialism
Illiteracy has historically been one of capitalism’s primary tools in the suppression of class struggle and their ongoing monopoly on knowledge and technology. In the imperialist epoch this process has taken on the form of the technological enslavement of developing nations to their imperialist master’s. No phone networks without Vodafone, no electricity grid without Siemen’s, no medicine without Glaxo Smith-Kline etc etc. No wonder the technological developments that occur in China, Iran, DPR Korea and other independent nations bring the fury of the western governments and their media; incredulous at developing technology in these countries, particularly annoyed by the increasing technical development of the military in these countries, enabling them to defend their sovereignty and independence against imperialist aggression. Does the west really worry that China is ‘exploiting’ Africa? The same west that colonised Africa, stole the land from her people’s and enslaved and transported millions! Worries about their exploitation by China?! Perhaps they are more concerned that Chinese phone networks, Chinese mines, Chinese technicians and engineers are delivering the kind of technological improvements to Africa that will enable her people’s to stand on their own two feet, free of the IMF and World Bank!
Illiteracy & Culture
The indoctrination of British youth, the promotion of materialistic, self-obsessive behavior has driven the working class into blind and submissive moral acceptance of the domination of the idea’s, norms and behavior of the ruling class, helped along by the powerful privately-owned corporate media working in the interests of capital it has become cool to champion “The Apprentice” and decidedly uncool to go against the grain. Empathy with one another and our common struggle has been contaminated with selfish greed, alienating humans from their natural empathy towards one another, our common struggle and our desire to cooperate in a social environment to fix common problems. These natural instincts are replaced by senseless competition and mutual distrust, a pitting of one against another in a battle for survival and a race to the bottom.
The seemingly endless cycle of exploitation of working-class families will continue for as long as the working-class allows itself to be subjected to the orders of the exploitative class. The daily grind and increasing hardships create a no win situation for imperialism. To increase profits to the maximum it must impoverish and drive down the living standards of the masses of people – but in so doing it creates it’s own gravediggers. The only way to put an end to the poverty and neglect facing the 170 million + children talked about in the report, as well as their families, is to put control of production into their hands – into the hands of the working-class. The working class must seize state power and wield it in its own interests.
Socialism and class politics points the way
Take the example of the Cuban revolution. To this day, Cuba is labeled a third world country, despite boasting average literacy attainment far higher than that of its former oppressor, the USA, and maintaining the welfare of the people despite an endless list of items embargoed by the imperialists, banned from entering the country by US imperialism and it’s allies! Against imperialism, against the odds, Cuba has defied what capitalism says is possible and proven that an organised, disciplined and clearly defined working-class agenda is the only way to put an end to the demons of hunger, destitution, illiteracy and cultural oppression that haunt the world’s working class and the oppressed nations.
If Save the Children imagine that their discovery of c+h=i [children+hunger=illiteracy] is new they should look to the example of the Black Panther Party (BPP), who introduced food before school programmes in the 1960’s! Thousands of poor children in their community, who were suffering terrible poverty and malnutrition, and who would normally go to school without a meal were fed by the BPP programmes. The Panthers realised way back in 1960’s America that a hungry child can’t concentrate properly in school, that hunger prevented them from learning and developing, that an empty tummy inevitably led to illiteracy and unemployment! It’s not rocket science.
The way forward
Only the direct actions of the working-class can change the world. No amount of charitable donations and hand-me-downs from the G8 leaders will ever free children from the slavery they face at the hands of imperialism. Only a scientific, socialist approach to running society, a system and state run by the workers themselves can execute the demands of working-class.
The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win!
