“According to us, it is bourgeois democracy which has helped Fascism to come to power. The bourgeoisie has given all the privileges of bourgeois democracy to Fascism, has suppressed the proletariat by dint of bourgeois democracy and has ultimately replaced the bourgeois democratic form of its state with the Fascist form of state. What the Fascists are attacking is not bourgeois democracy but those rights which the proletariat has won from the bourgeois democracy and which can thus be considered the democratic pre-requisites of the proletarian revolution. Rights earned by fighting against the bourgeoisie, by pouring out its heart’s blood, by no means, form a part of the bourgeois-democratic rights because democracy in this epoch has already outgrown its bourgeois character. The bourgeoisie can no longer be democratic and democracy can no longer be bourgeois. Democracy can exist and blossom only in its proletarian form.” (“The People’s Front or the Front Against the People?”, August 1940)
On this 88th foundation day of our party, we, the Revolutionary Communists, pay our tribute to all the foot-soldiers of the socialist revolution who have been working under the banner of the RCPI selflessly for the establishment of socialism. Many of our comrades have also lost their lives in their struggle for communism. We pay our sincere homage to those martyrs. The party has experienced many ups and downs throughout these decades.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the impotence of the capitalist system in providing free medical facilities to the people. With the increase in the number of positive cases, private hospitals have enormously maximised their profits. They are even selling vaccines. It exposes the nature of capitalism that capitalism commodifies even the primal needs of the people.
It is more than necessary to replace this system with socialism. We invite the people of India to join our party en masse to fight for the establishment of socialism. The days of capitalism are numbered. It must be overthrown for the greater interest of the people. The revolution that has to take place now is a socialist revolution. The teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky and our party's founder members will inspire us to accomplish our historical task.
Long Live the Revolution!
Long Live the Revolutionary Communist Party of India!
Comrade Diptabhanu Mitra is no more. He succumbed to COVID-19 yesterday. He was a member of the Central Committee of the RCPI. It is indeed a great loss to our party. He was one of the most studious comrades we have ever had. His revolutionary ideas and knowledge that he shared with us will always inspire us. He will be alive in our struggles.
We pay our deep condolences to his family. Red Salute to Comrade Diptabhanu Mitra. কমরেড দিপ্তভানু মিত্রকে লাল সেলাম।
April is a significant month for all Marxist-Leninists. Firstly, because Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, popularly known as Comrade Lenin, was born this month in 1870. And secondly, because his April Theses were published this month.
Marx and Engels, of course, played a vital role in creating the international workers’ movement. They were the greatest theoreticians of the world socialist movement. But Lenin, along with his intellect, was also a dedicated builder of the revolutionary party. It was Lenin, after all, who made a socialist revolution possible in Russia.
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| Lenin in 1917 (Source: Marxists Internet Archive) |
A Socialist Revolutionary
In early 1917, while a majority of the Bolshevik leaders, in Lenin’s words, “the Old Bolsheviks”, were in favour of the provisional government led by Kerensky, Lenin’s appeal was to overthrow it. Although Russia was at that time a backward country, it was never Lenin’s opinion that the revolution had to be led by the bourgeoisie. Following Marx and Engels, Lenin recognised the proletariat as the genuinely revolutionary class. He appealed to the people of Russia and the Bolsheviks several times to overthrow this Provisional Government. He expressed his ideas in his Letters from Afar. Out of the five letters written by him, only the first was published by Pravda. The second, third and fourth were not published. And the fifth letter was left unfinished by Lenin himself. The basic ideas that Lenin wanted to express through these letters were later written in his Letters on Tactics, April Theses and The Tasks of the Proletariat in Our Revolution.
What Lenin talked about in these letters was that another revolution was needed to overthrow the Provisional Government enthroned by the February Revolution. And the revolution that Lenin and Trotsky were planning now was a socialist one. This contrasts with the Menshevik idea of a two-stage revolution, which was later adopted by Stalin.
“Things have turned out just as we said they would. The course taken by the revolution has confirmed the correctness of our reasoning. First, with the “whole” of the peasantry against the monarchy, against the landlords, against the medieval regime (and to that extent, the revolution remains bourgeois, bourgeois-democratic). Then, with the poor peasants, with the semi-proletarians, with all the exploited, against capitalism, including the rural rich, the kulaks, the profiteers, and to that extent the revolution becomes a socialist one. To attempt to raise an artificial Chinese Wall between the first and second, to separate them by anything else than the degree of preparedness of the proletariat and the degree of its unity with the poor peasants, means monstrously to distort Marxism, to vulgarize it, to substitute liberalism in its place.”
Lenin’s words are strictly in opposition to the two-stage theory that was later adopted by the Third International after Lenin and under Stalin. The two-stage theory, contrary to Leninism, says that at first there has to be a bourgeois revolution in alliance with the bourgeoisie, and then, a socialist revolution (if possible). The Stalinist two-stage theory thus brings a “Chinese Wall” between the bourgeois and socialist revolutions which Lenin had warned us against. But revolutionary Leninism says that the unfinished tasks of the bourgeois revolution must be completed by the socialist revolution alone.
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| Lenin in November 1918 (Source: Marxists Internet Archive) |
The Significance of his April Theses
It was Lenin’s April Theses that changed the course of the Russian Revolution. Initially, the Bolsheviks were in support of the Provisional Government. However, after Lenin arrived in Russia from exile and his announcement of his April Theses, the Bolsheviks were forced to withdraw their support from the government. In his Theses, Lenin raised 10 points:
1. That “without overthrowing capital it is impossible to end the war [World War I] by a truly democratic peace”. Lenin had said the same thing in his lecture War and Revolution: “Until there is a workers’ revolution in several countries the war cannot be stopped, because the people who want that war are still in power.”
2. That Russia is “passing from the first stage of the revolution—which, owing to the insufficient class-consciousness and organisation of the proletariat, placed power in the hands of the bourgeoisie—to its second stage, which must place power in the hands of the proletariat and the poorest sections of the peasants.” Here, Lenin emphasises the point that the first stage of the revolution, i.e. placing the power in the hands of the bourgeoisie, was only a result of “insufficient class-consciousness and organisation of the proletariat”, and hence, not a compulsory stage of the revolution.
3. “No support for the Provisional Government.”
4. That instead of tailing the bourgeois Provisional Government, the Bolsheviks, being in the minority, should “carry on the work of criticising and exposing errors” of the government, and “preach the necessity of transferring the entire state power to the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies”.
5. That the Bolsheviks should fight for “a republic of Soviets of Workers’, Agricultural Labourers’ and Peasants’ Deputies throughout the country”, and that “to return to a parliamentary republic from the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies would be a retrograde step”. Lenin also called for the abolition of the police, the army and the bureaucracy, and demanded that the salaries of all officials should not exceed the average wage of a competent worker. At the same time, he also mentioned that these officials are elective and displaceable at any time.
6. “Nationalisation of all lands in the country, the land to be disposed of by the local Soviets of Agricultural Labourers’ and Peasants’ Deputies.”
7. “The immediate union of all banks in the country into a single national bank, and the institution of control over it by the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies.”
8. That socialism could not be introduced immediately, but social production and the distribution of products should be brought under the control of the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies.
9. Then he emphasises some of the party tasks: (A) Immediate convocation of a Party congress; (B) Alteration of the Party Programme, mainly: (i) On the question of imperialism and the imperialist war, (ii) On the attitude towards the state and the demand for a “commune state”; (iii) Amendment of our out-of-date minimum programme; (C) Change of the Party’s name, resulting in the change of the party name from “Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks)” to “Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)” in 1918.
10. A new International. This led to the foundation of the Communist International in March 1919, which was disbanded by Stalin in 1943 to impress his bourgeois allies.
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| Lenin in August 1922 (Source: Marxists Internet Archive) |
Never could Lenin imagine that socialism can be built or survive in one country. Several times did he emphasise the need for a world socialist revolution to strengthen the socialist revolution of Russia. The October Revolution was nothing but the beginning of the world socialist revolution, according to Lenin.
On July 23, 1918, Lenin said: “Aware of the isolation of its revolution, the Russian proletariat clearly realises that an essential condition and prime requisite for its victory is the united action of the workers of the whole world, or of several capitalistically advanced countries.” (Report Delivered at a Moscow Gubernia Conference of Factory Committees, July 23, 1918)
On November 8, 1918, he said: “The complete victory of the socialist revolution in one country alone is inconceivable and demands the most active co-operation of at least several advanced countries, which do not include Russia.” (Speech On The International Situation at the Extraordinary Sixth All-Russia Congress Of Soviets Of Workers’, Peasants’, Cossacks’and Red Army Deputies, November 6-9, 1918)
In late February 1922, Lenin wrote: “[W]e have always urged and reiterated the elementary truth of Marxism—that the joint efforts of the workers of several advanced countries are needed for the victory of socialism.” (Notes of a Publicist)
Lenin could never recognise the possibility of the socialist revolution in Russia without the joint efforts of the workers of the advanced countries. This is why he emphasised the world socialist revolution several times. Socialism is something that cannot be confined to one single country, particularly in a country like Russia.
Of course, Marxism is nothing without internationalism. Marx and Engels urged the workers of the world—not those of some selected countries—to unite. Lenin, therefore, could not give up the idea of emancipation of the workers of the world. This is why he founded the Third International or the Communist International. By founding the new international, he wanted to spread the revolution of Russia throughout the world. He said on the foundation of the new International: “[T]he world revolution is beginning and growing in intensity everywhere.”
Just because Lenin had recognised the need for the internationalisation of the socialist revolution, he was expecting a revolution in Germany. Emphasising the importance of a socialist revolution in Germany, Lenin said in March 1918, “[W]ithout a German revolution we are doomed. ... [I]f the German revolution does not come, we are doomed.” It was of course not Lenin’s underestimation of the proletariat of Russia, but a practical outlook to safeguard the socialist revolution in Russia. Such was Lenin’s internationalism. He never had high expectations from the country where he made a revolution. Rather he analysed the situation dialectically.
He had previously talked about sacrificing even the revolution of Russia for the German revolution: “If we believe that the German movement can develop immediately, in the event of an interruption of the peace negotiations, then we must sacrifice ourselves, for the German revolution will have a force much greater than ours.” Such was the internationalism of Comrade Lenin.
On this 151st birth anniversary of Comrade V.I. Lenin, we, the revolutionary communists, commemorate his revolutionary legacy. May his revolutionary ideas inspire the people to revolutionise the world.
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| Bishnu Prasad Rava (January 31, 1909—June 20, 1969) |
When India, on 15th August 1947, was celebrating the day, Comrade
Bishnu Prasad Rava, along with his comrades with black flags in their hands, chanted,
“Ye Azadi Jhoothi Hai!” (“This
freedom is a fake one.”), as the freedom achieved was only an agreement between
the British bourgeoisie and the Indian bourgeoisie, only a transfer of power
from the former to the latter. The Revolutionary Communist Party of India
(RCPI) was aware of the agreement between the two, the treachery of the Indian
bourgeoisie that used the Indian masses to serve their purpose. Bishnu Prasad
Rava, along with the other comrades of the party, did not permit themselves to
be fooled by the Indian bourgeoisie and declared the independence to be a fake
one. Comrade Rava said, “I am fighting for a revolution from the realm of
necessity to the realm of freedom.” The party did not consider that the freedom
achieved in 1947 was for the working class but the Indian bourgeoisie.
On the 15th day of August 1947, rallies we taken out with the
slogans of “Jai Hind” and “Vande Mataram”. The RCPI, at the same time, in
different parts of Assam, took out rallies with the slogan of “Ye Azadi Jhoothi
Hai!” Many of our comrades were beaten by the people who were celebrating the
day, mistaking the transfer of power for independence. But the RCPI did not
consider it to be a real independence in the Marxist sense.
In the same year, the RCPI and Krishak Banua Panchayat (KBP—the peasants
and workers’ wing of the party), headed by Comrade BP Rava, tried to organise
the workers of factories and tea garden labourers. The tea garden labourers,
under the leadership of Comrades Mohanlal Mukherjee and Upen Das, held strikes
in places like Ledo and Margherita (Assam).
In December 1948, the Central Conference of the party was held at
Birbhum (West Bengal). Comrade Pannalal Dasgupta’s thesis was accepted in that
conference. A decision was taken in that conference to begin an armed struggle
against the Indian bourgeoisie and their representative—the Indian Government,
and their state. The conference concluded that the independence that India had
got was merely an agreement between the British bourgeoisie and the Indian
bourgeoisie. India was still a “democratic-colony” of the British Empire. India
was independent, but only politically, not economically. The means of
production were more or less still in the hands of the British Empire. The
working class of India was exploited jointly by the British bourgeoisie and the
Indian bourgeoisie. Although the bourgeois-democratic revolution in India had
not been completed, it could not be left to be completed by the Indian
bourgeoisie. There was, and still is, a need for a socialist revolution in
India, that can complete the unfinished tasks of the bourgeois revolution. In
short, the conference called for a socialist revolution in India, with the
proletariat as the leader and the peasantry as the led. As a result, the
Revolutionary Communist Party of India was banned.
However, Comrade Saumyendranath Tagore was against this decision. Since
India had just achieved freedom from British Imperialism, it was not the right
time to wage an armed struggle against the Indian government as the people were
unable to distinguish this freedom from the freedom from capitalism.
The RCPI then waged an armed struggle against the Indian bourgeoisie and the bourgeois state. It struggled for local seizure of power in different regions of the country. The struggle was at its strongest peak in Assam. In Assam, it raised slogans like “Land to the Tiller”.
Comrade Rava had joined the KBP in 1945. In 1949, he joined the RCPI. It can be metaphorically said that Bishnu Prasad Rava had a STEN gun in his one hand, and a pen in the other. He did not only fight against the ruling capitalists and feudal lords, but also inspired the masses with his revolutionary poems, songs and stories. He could explain the problems prevailing in the society to the general public in a simple and comprehensive language from a Marxist perspective. He roamed like a vagabond from village to village. Anyone who caught him would be awarded with an amount of ten thousand rupees.
In 1949, the Assam Police printed out and distributed photos of several comrades throughout the province.
In July 1949, Gopinath Bordoloi, the then Chief Minister of Assam, wrote to Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India:
“The communist activities … have taken a shape of exciting the more ignorant section of the people of this province (and they are many) into acts of violence against the constituted authority, under some plea or other and in a few places they have been successful. But all of them have been put down. The evil however does not seem to vanish so long as the agents are there to work from underground. But what makes the task of Government difficult is that although the intelligence reports reveal that these underground lawbreakers are doing this thing in this place and that thing in another, few if ever any action is found to be taken either for preventing their mischief as is being committed or in apprehending these underground culprits.”
However, this revolutionary is addressed by only a few as Sainik Silpi (sainik “soldier”, silpi “artist”).
Most of the people honour him as Kalaguru
(the master of the arts). This might be a result of the attempt of the ruling
classes to portray him merely as an artist rather than a Marxist revolutionary
artist. The society, under the influence of the ruling classes, that considers
communism as a taboo, does not want to glorify the revolutionary part of
Comrade Rava. This is why Comrade Gyan Singh sarcastically comments, “Bishnu
Rava is good, but communist Bishnu Rava is bad.” An analysis of Comrade Rava is
the need of the hour. He, along with his revolutionary legacy, must be
popularised amongst the masses. An analysis of how the idealist Rava became
Comrade Rava will fascinate the people. In the words of Hemanga Biswas, Marxism
“has brought completeness and depth like an ocean to his restless and unstable
artistic life.” Bishnu Prasad Rava was an artist who could use his artistic
talents for the cause of the working people. The way he simplified the ideas of
socialism through his songs and poems is worth appreciating.
Let the people decide whether his struggle was for or against them. The
legend of Rava must inspire the youth to build a society without exploitation.
The ruling classes must not be allowed to use Rava for their interests. As Dr
Hiren Gohain says, “Now it is time to examine the life cycle of Bishnu Rava.
Keeping analysis aside, getting carried away by emotions will benefit those who
want to create a Rava cult to achieve
their narrow horizons.”
