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Red Star Weekly Issue # 17 (27th May 2012) - CPI(ML)

Red Star Weekly Issue # 17 (27th May 2012) - CPI(ML)

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C-141, Sainik Nagar, New Delhi – 110059, Phone – (011) 25332343<br />

Email: info@cpiml.in, redstarenglish@yahoo.co.in Website: www.cpiml.in<br />

Online <strong>Weekly</strong> Volume – 1 <strong>Issue</strong> – <strong>17</strong> 27 <strong>May</strong> <strong>2012</strong><br />

Countrywide all out struggle against price rise needed<br />

THE HUGE HIKE of Rs. 7.50 per litre in the price of petrol has further intensified the all round price rise of all<br />

essential commodities. While the central and state governments are not ready to increase the minimum wage<br />

linking it with the inflation or to implement even the existing act, when the daily average income of vast<br />

majority are only Rs. 20 per day, the ever intensifying price rise is making them destitute. In this situation, as the<br />

hike in petrol price is announced the opposition parties are contended by calling a token hartal and leaving the<br />

people to suffer the consequences of this latest hike. While Congress is justifying it in the name of mounting<br />

economic strains as it justified in 1991 the imposition of the imperialist globalization policies, none of these<br />

opposition parties from BJP to <strong>CPI</strong>(M) is ready to initiate a debate whether our country should still follow the<br />

neo-liberal policies or not. None of them target their attack on the huge taxes charged by central and state<br />

governments on petroleum and its products. Except for reaping immediate political benefits, none of them call<br />

for reversing the policies that have led to fall in Re prices and to unprecedented price rise. In this situation what<br />

is required is an all out struggle against the price rise and the neo-liberal policies that create this intolerable<br />

condition for the masses. Let all left and democratic forces get organized for such a struggle.<br />

Repeal Hike in Petrol Price and Bring Down Prices of Essential Commodities!<br />

Revoke Decontrol of Petrol pricing; Repeal Neo-Liberal Policies!<br />

Mobilize the Masses and Make 31st <strong>May</strong> Bharat Bandh a Great Success!<br />

THE UPA GOVERNMENT’S declaration hiking the petrol price by Rs. 7.50 at one stroke is another arrogant attack<br />

on the masses who are already reeling under ever-intensifying and unprecedented rise in prices of all essential<br />

commodities and services. After decontrolling the petrol pricing without even getting it passed in parliament,<br />

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is ridiculing the people by saying that it is done by the companies, and the<br />

government has no control over it. Similarly, if is happening because of the fall in Rupee value in relation to<br />

dollar, as the government shamelessly justifies, it is due to the neo-liberal policies imposed under imperialist<br />

dictation. So will the government repeal these anti-people policies? It should not be forgotten that even when<br />

the international finance capital crisis was intensifying for last three years or more, this government was<br />

repeating that everything is ok and that the resilient Indian economy will not be affected. Now they justify the<br />

crisis in the economy and hike in petrol price sighting the Euro zone crisis and what not. All these selfcontradictory<br />

talks are for hoodwinking the people. It is abundantly clear that as Indian economy is getting<br />

increasingly integrated with the imperialist finance capital system under globalization, any crisis in the<br />

imperialist system will be soon transmitted to the economy of countries like India which are under increasing<br />

neo-colonial plunder. The worsening economic plight of the masses including the price hikes are the result of<br />

these policies blatantly imposed by the govt., and it alone is responsible for its consequences like price rise.<br />

In this situation, the people have no other way out but to unleash their fury to compel the government to repeal<br />

of the petrol price hike and to revoke the decontrol of petrol pricing. This struggle should be expanded to a<br />

mighty struggle for revoking the reactionary neo-liberal policies themselves. But as far as the opposition parties<br />

are contended they are only interested in cornering the UPA government for their future electoral gains. They<br />

1


have no basic differences with the Congress or UPA government regarding the neo-liberal policies and<br />

servitude to imperialism. While campaigning and mobilizing for the bandh, these differences between the<br />

approach of the parties from BJP to <strong>CPI</strong>(M) who implement the very same policies of the UPA government<br />

whenever and wherever they come to power, with that of the revolutionary left forces should be highlighted.<br />

The <strong>CPI</strong> (<strong>ML</strong>) appeals to all genuine left and democratic forces to make the Bharat Bandh a great success and get<br />

prepared to use it as a stepping stone to carry forward the struggle to the very revocation of all these antipeople<br />

policies.<br />

Condemn CRPF’s demand to enforce AFSPA in Jharkhand<br />

2<br />

KN Ramachandran,<br />

General Secretary,<br />

<strong>CPI</strong>(<strong>ML</strong>)<br />

Dated 24th <strong>May</strong>, <strong>2012</strong><br />

THE JHARKHAND HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT (JHRM) has strongly condemned the Central Reserved Police<br />

Force (CRPF)’s demand for enforcement of the draconian law, “Armed Forces (Special Power) Act 1958”, in<br />

Jharkhand. There would be a genocide of innocent Adivasis if the Act in enforced in the state. This Act would<br />

create upheaval and chaos in the state. Needless to say that Mr. D K Pandey, CRPF inspector-general (IG)<br />

posted in Ranchi and in-charge of anti-Maoist operations for the central forces in Jharkhand, had written a letter<br />

to the Central Government asking for the enforcement of the AFSPA in Jharkhand. According to Mr. Pandey,<br />

the draconian AFSPA should be imposed in "at least selective pockets" in Jharkhand if it is not possible in the<br />

entire state. Pandey has said that in the present system, Jharkhand Police is requisitioning CRPF for providing<br />

troops for anti-Naxal operations. CRPF is not in a position to launch any operation of its own. Hence, the CRPF<br />

should be given Armed Forces Special Powers (AFSPA) for at least six months.<br />

The JHRM has reported that the CRPF and its elite force the COBRA Jawans have already killed Mangal<br />

Honhaga, Soma Guria, Jurida Honhanga (Saranda region), Jasminta Devi, Devendra Yadav, Lukas Minj<br />

(Palamu region) Akhileshwar Mahto (Bokaro region) and many others during the anti-Naxal operations.<br />

Similarly, they have brutally tortured Sylvester Minj, William Minj, Birju Oraon, Bifa Pahria and many others<br />

after branding them as either Naxals or their supporters. The data suggests that 557 people were killed in the socalled<br />

cross-fire and 6000 were arrested and thrown behind the bars in last 11 years after branding them as<br />

Naxals or supporters in the state. Investigation reveals that most of the victims were innocent villagers.<br />

Similarly, the Human Rights defenders were also exploited by the forces. Hence, if the central forces get the<br />

special power, they will misuse it as it has been done in Manipur, Nagaland and Jammu & Kashmir. Therefore,<br />

the CRPF’s demand should be opposed by all democratic forces in order to protect the rights of the people of<br />

Jharkhand.<br />

Business and Politics of Blind Faith<br />

Ram Puniyani<br />

Sanal Edamaruku, a rationalist is facing the legal trap for abusing others’ faith. (April <strong>2012</strong>) At the same time in<br />

another event, Nirmal Baba, who is supposed to be having divine powers and who has been flashing his paid<br />

programs in over 40 TV channels, advising people on solving their problems with various’ divine’ solutions, is<br />

facing case of fraud. Recently a local court has directed the police to register a case against him for allegedly<br />

cheating people. Both these cases coming in different religions have a deeper connection. In case of Sanal<br />

Edamaruku, he was able to show the root of the water seeping from the feet of Jesus Christ on cross in<br />

Mumbai’s Irla area. This water was regarded as divine and many followers were thronging the place to have<br />

access to the divine water. Sanal showed that water was from the choked drain and getting pushed up by<br />

capillary action. Sanal is facing the wrath of section of the community for hurting their faith.<br />

Nirmala Baba, Nirmaljit Singh Nirula, a failed Businessman had disappeared in 1970 and then later repapered<br />

claiming to have divine powers and started building up his enterprise by organizing paid TV shows in which<br />

those in the audience were initially paid to ask solutions for their problems and later people in thousands<br />

thronged, paid money to enter these TV shows, ‘Nirmal Darbars’ and Baba started dishing out ‘solutions’ while


his bank accounts swelled. In few years time the ‘faith-business’ flourished and now Baba is a multimillionaire<br />

with good deal of property under his belt.<br />

The large section of followers thronging for the divine water seeping from the feet of Lord Jesus, to explain the<br />

source of water came as an insult of their faith. To the multiple people seeking solutions from Nirmal Baba, it<br />

was again a matter of faith. The boundaries between faith and blind faith many a times are very blurred. As<br />

such faith and reason have been counter-posed in the society. Faith has been ruling the roost in the areas of<br />

‘unknown’ and the future. It has been constructed around the supernatural powers and clergy of different<br />

religions or self made Godmen have been the custodian of faith. Many an areas which were in the domain of<br />

faith shifted to reason over a period of time like nature of earth, eclipse, diseases etc. …<br />

Vapi most polluted industrial cluster again<br />

VAPI is the region on the border of Maharashtra and Gujarat where a large number of industries removed from<br />

Mumbai for pollution and other reasons were relocated. The interim review of work index for comprehensive<br />

environment pollution index (CEPI) action plan carried out jointly by the Central Pollution Control Board<br />

(CPCB) and Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) has thrown up disturbing facts about the Vapi industrial<br />

cluster.<br />

The CEPI data shows that pollution levels in Vapi, which was marked as one of the most critically polluted<br />

industrial cluster in country, have again gone up. In the interim assessment report carried out jointly by CPCB<br />

and GPCB, Vapi has scored the highest in pollution grade out of the 43 industrial clusters in India assessed. The<br />

score in interim report is 90.75 out of 100. In the earlier report of CEPI in 2009, Vapi industrial cluster had scored<br />

88.09 out of 100. This means that pollution levels of air, water and land, have both gone up in two years.<br />

The score of air pollution in CEPI-2009 was 74 out of 100 whereas it went up to 74.50 in interim assessment<br />

CEPI-11 report. The report also reveals that during sampling, monitoring and assessment work, some of volatile<br />

organic carbon (VOC) based pollutants were found beyond permissible limit prescribed by national ambient air<br />

control standard - 2009. Out of 12 pollutants monitored in air from five different locations, six pollutants were<br />

found beyond permissible limit. These included nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter 10 and 2.5, lead, nickel and<br />

arsenic.<br />

According to guidelines for high polluted areas decided by the ministry for environment and forests, the score<br />

of more than 60 in CEPI shows a critical level of pollution The meeting was held last month in the in presence of<br />

senior GPCB officials, delegates from Vapi industrial associations and Vapi Waste and Effluents Management<br />

Co. Ltd. along with other prominent stakeholders from industry. The meeting widely discussed the issue of<br />

rising scores in air and water pollution, which were assessed beyond prescribed permissible limits. The first<br />

quarter report of volatile organic carbon monitored according to the new ambient air monitoring standard was<br />

worrisome. The value of highly hazardous pollutants was high, said an officer who was present in meeting.<br />

GPCB sources said after the moratorium imposed by MOEF on Vapi was lifted on condition of strict<br />

implementation of long-term pollution control action plan. The limit of the two-year action plan will end in<br />

September. [The Times of India, 21 st <strong>May</strong>]<br />

Naxalbari Day: Political Campaign for Revolutionary Alternative<br />

<strong>CPI</strong>(<strong>ML</strong>) KERALA STATE COMMITTEE is organizing a week long political campaign at state level with the slogans:<br />

Condemn the murder of com. TP Chandrasekharan, Fight Against Criminalization of Politics, and Struggle to Build<br />

Revolutionary Alternative, on the occasion of observing the 45 th anniversary of Naxalbari Uprising from 24 th to<br />

31 st <strong>May</strong>. While the campaign is organized on 24 th in Ernakulam district, 25-26 in Trichur, 27-28 in southern<br />

districts culminating with rally and public meeting at Thiruvalla on 28 th , the campaign in the northern districts<br />

from 28 th to 31 st <strong>May</strong> will culminate with a rally and public meeting at Kannur. With a special issue of the state<br />

committee’s organ, Sakhav ,the campaign will be continued in June propagating the ideological-political line of<br />

the <strong>CPI</strong>(<strong>ML</strong>) and calling for the unity of all genuine communists against the intensification of the<br />

criminalization of politics as a part of the neo-colonial degeneration as reflected in the brutal murder of com.TP<br />

Chandrashekheran by <strong>CPI</strong>(M)cadres, and for building a revolutionary alternative against Congress-led UDF,<br />

<strong>CPI</strong>(M)-led LDF and BJP.<br />

3


Kabir Kala Manch Defence Committee statement<br />

ACCORDING TO official government figures, on an average 2 dalits are killed and 3 raped every day across India.<br />

All the more shocking is the fact that even in Maharashtra which gave birth to major social reformists and<br />

progressive thinkers like Jotiba Phule and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, the incidence of atrocities remains very<br />

high. In this landscape it cannot be surprising that dalit and adivasi youth have begun to voice their protest<br />

more openly than before. After the polic killings at Ramabai colony and later, the Khairlanji massacre many<br />

protests took place. Instead of bringing the guilty to book, the State responded by branding the protesters as<br />

Naxalites (Maoists). Dalit cultural activists like Sudhir Dhawle were jailed for “sedition” and remain behind<br />

bars for years, pending trial.<br />

It is in this context that the story of Kabir Kala Manch must be understood. KKM is a Pune based cultural troupe<br />

mainly consisting of Dalit youth from the region. First coming together against the communal carnage in<br />

Gujarat, they took part in innumerable public interest causes like slum-dwellers rights, workers rights and<br />

sustainable development, but their special affinity has been fighting for the annihilation of caste to which end<br />

they even held events promoting inter-caste marriage. Around last year the state began to brand them as<br />

Naxalites. Today while Deepak Dengle and Siddharth Bhonsle of KKM are in prison, many other members<br />

including lead singer-poets Sheetal Sathe, Sagar Gorkhe and Sachin Mali have gone underground after threats<br />

from the police.All are charged with being Naxalites and the ATS is using an uncritical media to plant regular<br />

allegations against the KKM. Even these allegations do not accuse the KKM of any violence, but are dependent<br />

mainly on guilt by association.<br />

The Kabir Kala Manch Defense Committee urges the government of Maharashtra to withdraw all false charges<br />

against members of the KKM, free the cultural activists who are currently in prison and allow the KKM to<br />

perform in public again.<br />

West Bengal: Thika Mazdoor Union Formed<br />

CONTRACTOR LABOUR UNION has been formed in Engineering Industry, Tiitagarh Wagon Limited, in West<br />

Bengal under the leadership of TUCI. The name of this union is "TWL Sangrami Thika Mazdoor Union". The<br />

struggle is going on in that Company.<br />

Indefinite fast against mega dam projects<br />

KRISHAK MUKTI SANGRAM SAMITI (KMSS) general secretary Akhil Gogoi today started his fast for an indefinite<br />

period in support of the demands for abandoning all the mega dam projects proposed in Arunachal Pradesh<br />

and Bhutan. The KMSS leader has also demanded immediate halt to transportation of construction materials to<br />

the under construction mega dam projects and resented the police atrocities on the anti-mega dam activists.<br />

Gogoi started his fast at the Lakhidhar Bora Kshetra in the Dighalipukhuripar area of the city. Many people met<br />

Gogoi at the venue of his fast programme and expressed their solidarity with him. Many students of the city<br />

colleges and Gauhati University met Gogoi at the venue of his fast, said a press release of the KMSS.<br />

Barack Obama’s Rule and the Killing of Trayvon Martin<br />

Ray o Light<br />

MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, the still imprisoned and still fearlessly honest Black journalist, warned the Afro-American<br />

people during the 2008 presidential election that they should remember that Obama was running to be the<br />

leader of “the most powerful white nation in the world.” With Mumia’s insight in mind, let’s look at Obama’s<br />

record as President in dealing with the oppressed status of the Afro-American people. Black Agenda Report<br />

executive editor Glen Ford exposed Obama’s role in the Trayvon Martin case with this profound truth:<br />

“Anybody that speaks of the U.S. as on a trajectory to a post-racial society is setting non-whites up for racist<br />

attack. … At the top of the list is Barack Obama, whose campaign trail ‘Philadelphia Speech’ baldly stated that<br />

racism was not endemic to American life and history, and characterized those Blacks who disagreed as having<br />

been psychologically damaged by past battles. That a Black president can be gratefully applauded by African-<br />

Americans – and publicly pilloried by some whites – for deigning to acknowledge the humanity of his own<br />

4


hypothetical child (‘If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon’) says volumes on the devaluation of Black life in<br />

America.” (“Trayvon Killing Reveals Unreconstructed White Nationalism on the March,” 4-18-12, My emphasis, ROL)<br />

Indeed, as the weeks passed with no arrest of the killer, his “looks like me” comment was all that the<br />

Commander in Chief had to say about the Trayvon Martin killing.*<br />

[Furthermore, as the Trayvon Martin case became widely known, Congressman Bobby Rush (Democrat-Illinois)<br />

spoke from the floor of the U.S. Congress in defense of justice for Trayvon Martin’s family while wearing a<br />

hoodie. Congressman Rush, a Black Panther in his youth, was physically escorted out of the building. The<br />

Illinois Congressman’s protest was the strongest support for justice that the Trayvon Martin case has received<br />

from an established bourgeois Washington, DC politician thus far. It is worth remembering that Barack<br />

Obama’s first run for political office was an effort to unseat Congressman Rush. From the standpoint of the<br />

Trayvon Martin case and the Afro-American people it is certainly good that Congressman Rush defeated<br />

Obama in that election.]<br />

A few months ago, Troy Davis, a young Afro-American man was executed in Atlanta, Georgia, the unofficial<br />

“capital” of the Afro-American nation. Davis was put to death by the state of Georgia, even though all but one<br />

of the witnesses who had fingered him for the crime had renounced their previous testimony and Davis had<br />

steadfastly maintained his innocence. The National NAACP, led by Benjamin Jealous, was acting as if there was<br />

no way that Troy Davis would be executed. After all, the NAACP was well connected with both the President<br />

and Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr., both men of African descent. Yet Obama and Holder did not “interfere”<br />

with Georgia-style “justice,” citing the age-old pro-slavery doctrine of states’ rights! Some of Troy Davis’ blood<br />

is on their hands!<br />

An earlier experience of Barack Obama and the National NAACP in Georgia, could have foretold the tragic<br />

outcome of the Troy Davis case. In July 2010, the mere allegation that Shirley Sherrod, Georgia State Director of<br />

Rural Development United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), a Black USDA official, had discriminated<br />

against a white farmer led to her being forced to resign by Tom Vilsack, Barack Obama’s Secretary of<br />

Agriculture. In 1982, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights had reported that a primary cause of the loss of land<br />

of Afro-American farmers was discrimination at the hands of the USDA. And the U.S. Congress has reluctantly<br />

begun to pay reparations for this fact. Yet no white USDA official was ever ousted for the actual systemic<br />

discrimination against Black farmers now acknowledged by the U.S. government itself. Despite all this, the<br />

National NAACP immediately and shamefully trumpeted its support for Obama’s ouster of Sherrod.*<br />

About six months into the Obama presidency, in July of 2009, Obama’s personal friend, the eminent and well<br />

known Harvard University African-American Studies professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested by a white<br />

Cambridge, Massachusetts police detective named James Crowley. Gates was then a small, fifty-eight year old<br />

man walking with the aid of a cane who proved to the detective that the home Crowley “caught” him in was his<br />

own. In spite of all of this, Crowley handcuffed, arrested, booked and jailed Gates for four hours with no legal<br />

justification for his treatment of Gates. He merely did not like Gates’ attitude. Gates had not adopted a<br />

submissive approach in keeping with the U.S. culture in which the general population, and especially the Afro-<br />

American population, prostrates itself before the police power of “law and order.” Obama’s “executive action”<br />

was to invite both the victim and the perpetrator, to come to Washington, DC to have a beer together with him.<br />

Thus, was the police detective’s white supremacist rogue behavior toward a prominent Afro-American scholar<br />

and friend of the president rewarded by the president!<br />

Finally, the Afro-American working class has been attacked by the Obama Administration as well. The auto<br />

industry bailout led to a sharp decrease in the standard of living and union rights for the auto workers. And<br />

federal workers have been laid off and have lost income and raises during this Obama period. Now the United<br />

States Postal Service, long seen in the Afro-American community as one of the few reliable, accessible sources of<br />

stable, dignified and decent working class union jobs, (along with other federal jobs and the auto industry) is<br />

threatened with collapse and is a privatization target of the Obama-Wall Street cabal. The bloody, brutal, harsh<br />

and unrelenting historical assault by U.S. imperialism on the Afro-American people’s national identity is the<br />

only explanation for the desire of the majority of the Afro-American people to keep hoping that Obama will be<br />

“successful,” even though his success clearly comes at their expense! Clinging to this national identification with<br />

Obama, the successful individual African-American, many Afro-Americans refuse to recognize the fact that<br />

Obama is a more effective enforcer of the national oppression of the Afro-American people than George W.<br />

5


Bush was.<br />

Caterpillar Plant Closing in Canada<br />

FOR OVER SIXTY YEARS, hundreds of Canadian workers, organized in the Canadian Auto Workers Union (CAW),<br />

built railroad locomotives in London, Ontario. Two years ago, the giant U.S. company, Caterpillar, Inc.,<br />

purchased Electro-Motive Diesel Inc. and the London, Ontario plant became Caterpillar’s main plant for<br />

assembling locomotives in North America. The unionized Canadian workers were earning an average of thirtyfive<br />

Canadian dollars an hour as well as good benefits and pensions.Caterpillar, Inc., has a history of unionbusting<br />

in the USA; it is a Fortune 500 company that made a record profit of $4.9 billion dollars last year,<br />

including a 60% profit increase of $1.55 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011 alone! In an effort to take advantage<br />

of the global economic crisis and no doubt encouraged by the many concessions that the company had<br />

previously wrested from the more class collaborationist leadership of the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) in<br />

the USA, Caterpillar pushed the CAW for huge (50%) cuts in wages and benefits.<br />

On January 1, <strong>2012</strong>, after six months of union-company negotiations, Caterpillar locked the workers out of their<br />

workplace in an effort to force these concessions on the workers. The CAW workers set up picket lines and<br />

resisted the company’s demands with slogans such as “50% CUT in wages and benefits: NOT this time<br />

Caterpillar!” and “CATER$ILLAR — Record profits, Record CEO Compensation, Record demands for<br />

concessions.” On January 21, <strong>2012</strong>, there was a huge community-labor protest rally of around 15,000 in support<br />

of the workers’ resistance to these outrageous company demands. On February 3, <strong>2012</strong>, Caterpillar, Inc.<br />

announced it was shutting down the London, Ontario plant permanently. The company lockout had become a<br />

plant closing!<br />

According to a front page article in the January 20, <strong>2012</strong> Wall Street Journal, Caterpillar, Inc. has other railroad<br />

locomotive plants, including one in Brazil and a new non-union plant in Muncie, Indiana, where Caterpillar has<br />

hired workers at about half the wages of the London, Ontario workers! In addition, prior to its lockout of the<br />

London, Ontario manufacturing workers, Caterpillar made an agreement with the Canadian-based monopoly,<br />

Bombardier, Inc., to supply it with locomotives produced by workers in Sahagún, Mexico. Caterpillar, Inc. is<br />

prepared to shift its production from London, Ontario to either the “low wage” USA or Brazil or Mexico or to<br />

any place else in the world where it can maximize its profits! This fact reflects the utter lack of loyalty of the<br />

monopoly capitalists to any country or to any country’s workers. The monopoly capitalists are loyal only to<br />

maximum profits.*<br />

[Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric Company, the largest U.S. monopoly corporation, which made<br />

$14 billion dollars in profits and paid no taxes in 2010, said years ago that if he could put every factory on a<br />

barge and continually move it to whatever was the lowest wage-earning country in the world, that’s what he<br />

would do!] From the experience of the militant CAW workers in London, Ontario who refused to submit to<br />

Caterpillar’s brutal pressure, it is clear that while trade union militancy and community support is important<br />

and quite likely was key to wresting plant closing benefits from Caterpillar, Inc. that were greater than those<br />

guaranteed by Canadian law (three weeks severance pay for each year of work), they were not sufficiently<br />

strong enough to prevent Caterpillar from shutting down the plant. Caterpillar, Inc. was able to close the<br />

London, Ontario plant because the corporation had lined up workers in other countries to meet its production<br />

needs! To be in a position to prevent Caterpillar, Inc. or any other monopoly corporation from closing plants in<br />

Canada or anywhere else in the world, workers need to be at least as united and organized “across borders” as<br />

Caterpillar and other monopoly capitalist corporations are. To successfully oppose the monopoly capitalists’<br />

efforts to keep workers divided, playing off one section of the international working class against another<br />

(workers of one country against those of another), and thereby undermining all of our wages, working<br />

conditions and hours of work, workers around the world need to unite and coordinate our struggles<br />

internationally.* [It was precisely this need for international working class unity in the struggle to win the eight<br />

hour work day that led to the birth of <strong>May</strong> Day – the International Workers Holiday – over one hundred and<br />

twenty years ago.]<br />

Unprecedented strike in Educational system in Spain<br />

6


IN AN unprecedented move, in so far as there has never before been a strike covering all the levels of education –<br />

from Kindergarten to University, teachers and students in Spain went on strike on 22 nd <strong>May</strong> <strong>2012</strong> to protest<br />

against the massive cuts in the educational budget. Parents Associations, Private Educational institutions, all<br />

responded to the call for a strike from the teachers union. Massive demonstrations are expected this evening.<br />

The teachers union has reported 80% response to the strike. 14 out of <strong>17</strong> regions in Spain are taking part in this<br />

strike.<br />

The Government has budgeted for a cut in spending on education to the tune of 3 billion Euros (Twenty<br />

Thousand Crore Rupees). This will translate into less teachers, more students per class and higher fees for<br />

university education. It is estimated that 80000 to 100000 teachers will lose their jobs as a result of this cut in<br />

spending.<br />

After Greece, Ireland and Portugal have already been given massive bailouts by the European Union, it seems<br />

that Spain is headed in the same direction. Massive crises in the banking sectors in Spain have led to the<br />

Governments call for “austerity”. This “austerity” naturally translates into cuts in spending on essential public<br />

sectors like education. Spain already has only a 74% high school completion rate (as against 85% average in the<br />

European Union). The unemployment rate in the country is already at over 24%. The unemployment rate in<br />

those below 25 is 52%! Cutting expenditure in education in this situation will lead to havoc. In the words of a<br />

student interviewed in Madrid, all students will have to leave their schooling and get jobs in Germany – as<br />

uneducated labour.<br />

Presidential Pardon to Sarath Fonseka<br />

[Statement of Com. SK Senthivel, General Secretary of ND<strong>ML</strong>P, dated 25 <strong>May</strong>]<br />

IF IT IS POSSIBLE for the President to pardon the former Army General Sarath Fonseka who was detained for<br />

reasons of political vengeance and imprisoned under court verdicts, why is it not possible to pardon and release<br />

political prisoners who are under detention for many long years without inquiry? In that context, the demand<br />

by the Tamil political prisoners who have been on hunger strike for the past five days that they should be<br />

released is fully justified. The Government should pay full attention to their demand and take the necessary<br />

steps to secure their immediate release.<br />

The former Army General Sarath Fonseka was detained, charged and imprisoned under court verdicts as a<br />

result of contradictions among the ruling class forces. These steps comprise denial of democracy and political<br />

vengeance, and are unacceptable in any way. Sarath Fonseka was released yesterday through a pardon by the<br />

President. The pardon was not based on democratic considerations but because the Government yielded to<br />

pressure from the US.<br />

The release of Tamil political prisoners is being deliberately dragged on and denied owing to chauvinistic<br />

considerations. The Party urges in the name of law, democracy and human rights that all other political<br />

prisoners including Tamil political prisoners who have been detained without inquiry for a very long time<br />

should be released.<br />

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