[PDF]Communist Party of India, Political Thesis adopted at Second Congress

COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA
| af


\ )
an


POLITIGAL
THESIS


ADOPTED AT THE SECOND CONGRESS
FEB. 28 - MARCH 6, 1948, CALCUTTA


POLITICAL
THESIS
of the
Communist Party
of India


PASSED BY THE
SECOND CONGRESS AT CALCUTTA
FEB, 23—MARCH 6, 1948


First printed July 1948





CONTENTS


I, Tue INTERNATIONAL SituATION oa
Role of right-wing Social Democrats is
New class alignments or


Imperialism’s way out





In the colonies
Fiasco of imperialist policy o


Tl. Cuancxs 1N Inpta purinc Wortp War II anp


I.


Economic Basis oF CoLtavonationist Pouicy
oF Bourczorsiz es


Basis of revolutionary wave

Workers and the war crisis 5
Economic basis of collaboration o
Imperialism needs collaboration


Post-war RevotutTionary Upsurce ann New
Pouicies or IMPERIALISM AND INDIAN Bour-
croisig—New Ciass ALIGNMENT. ae


Real face of Mountbatten Award
National Government and the people
Government's economic policy 8


14
16
18
2


30


32
38
4
45


w ’ contents


Government's foreign policy ar
New role of the bourgeoisie ou
Game behind the riot offensive
Unmask the compromisets and communalists
Patel and Nehru .
National leaders and the masses .


Caprratist AND THE Pzopie’s Ways Our ..


Collapse of agrarian economy ery


Industry ond war ee


V. Acarnst Imperratist-Bourceos CONSPIRACY
Force A New CLAss ALLIANCE... PROGRAMME
or Democratic Front


Masses fight back ite


New class alliance *:
United front with Left parties oy
Congress, League and Democratic Front.
The Socialist Party er
Programme of democratic revolution a


‘VI. Tasks oF THE PARTY IN THE STRUGCLE FOR
Propte’s Democratic REVOLUTION ro


Tasks on the trade union front 1 id
Tasks on the peasant front os


Rssravaga 283 i


$38


CONTENTS


Tasks on the student front

Tasks among the youth

Tasks on the women’s front

Tasks on the States’ people’s front
The Untouchables

The minorities

The war danger

Fight for self-determination
Foreign policy

Lead the masses


100
102
103
105
0
112
3
114
u4


16


1, THE INTERNATIONAL SITUATION


HE defeat of Hitler Germany and Fascist Japan
in World War II has completely altered the inter-
national landscape and moved the balance decisively
in favour of the working class and its revolutionar
movement. Though the elimination of powerful rivals
like Germany and Japan might appear to have
strengthened other imperialist Paes yet the total
result is not the strengthening ‘of the world-imperialist
system but its immense weakening; not the strengthen-
ing of American imperialism but its tremendous weak-
ent before the world-revolutionary movement; not
the strengthening of the capitalist world but the
strengthening of the Socialist world and of the move-
ments and people heading towards Socialism and
national emancipation.
results are to be seen in the direct increase.
in the power and strength of the revolutionary forces.

The imperialist ‘tation of a tremendous weak-
ening of the Soviet Union, its economic collapse and
chaos after the war has not only not materialised, but
the contrary has come to be true.

In spite of the tremendous slaughter of manpower
and the most devastating destruction of resources, the
Soviet ae Bas bce) oe ees ee ess of
admira’ r the people and a great rallying point
for the working class and the masses in the struggle
against capital. The might of its arms creates confi-
dence among the masses of all countries and shatters
the myth of the invincibility of im arms.

Not only the military, but the economic,
organisational and industrial prestige of the Soviet
Union has increased tremendously, and the people in

italist countries contrast the planned, organised
life in the Soviet Union with the anarchy in capitalist
society.

13


2 POLITICAL THESIS OF C.P.1,


Secondly, the rise in Eastern Europe of People’s
Democracies—where belongs to the people,
where large-scale Industry, transport and the banks
are owned by the State and where a bloc of the labour-
ing classes of the population headed by the working
class constitutes the leading force—is another big blow
to world capitalism.’ It takes away a population
equal in number to that_of, Britain and rence put
together and a big territory from the orbit of capa.
lism, and ‘puts it firmly on the path to. i
. fees, id Seng ets oe the pebe of the
im, worl establishing People’s
Deniotratien fn, them, which, shatver the political and
economic power of the exploiting classes, by organis-
ing States which embody the sovereignty, of the people
based on the alliance.of workers, peasants and oppres-
sed middle classes, and by the world
Socialist. sector, the Eastern European ies
further widen the breach created by the Russian Revo-
sR esi of the revolutionary

tu Y 1 revolutic movement
of the working class and the weakening of capitalism
is further seen on the Ew continent in the im-
mense rise in the strength, of the Communist Parties—


unification of the class around them. The rise of the
sitalian and, French Communist, Parties, apart from
those in Eastern » was the logical conclusion of
the, great role they played in the revolutionary struggle
against Fascism. -


membership, but. in. the growth of the mass organisa-
tions led. i the Parties;, x the parliamentary successes
Scored—with the Communist Parties often coming out
as the biggest sinale parties: .
The. rise of, munist Parties in these coun-
tries epitomises the strength of the working class and
the instability of the present regimes and the maturity
of the revolutionary developments. It shows that be-
fore the parties of She, Hil it can restore the pre-war
capitalist balance, economically and politically, before


INTERNATIONAL SITUATION 3


the ruling class’ can ecoopietully throw the burdens of
the crisis on the working class, it will have to wage big
battles against. the workers—battles in which the
working-class strength is immense and great. It shows
that the working class is in a position to defeat the
new offensive and solve the revolutionary tasks of the
present, period.

Europe for the capitalists is on the brink of a dis-
aster, In Britain, it is the Labour Government that
stands between the mounting discontent and the capi-
talist rule. In America, which is getting more and more
in the mire of the crisis, which is hungrily
for markets all over the world and is attacking the liv-
ing standard of its own people and the freedom of other
nations—the crisis new battles between the
financial autocrats and the common, people.
is being waged under the leadership of See Chins

ig wai ung Chinese
Communist Party strikes another ful blow at
the world imperialist order, threatening to alter the
political of Asia and preparing the way of
throwing the imperialists and their-agents out of the
colonies. The growing rout of Chiang Kai-shek’s armies
and the fiasco of the policy of American im
unmistakably show that-the imperialist and
aims come up everywhere against insuperable obstacles
in the shape of people struggling for freedom,


‘Tue Rox or Ricut-Winc Soctar’ Democrats


In this new and decisive period of revolutionary deve-
Jopments, the right-wing Social Democrats, the tradi-
tional hangers-on of the bourgeoisie, come forward
with their usual treacherous role as the lackeys and
servitors of the bourgeoisie.

In the period of the anti-Fascist | war, the Social
Democratic leaders of France, Britain, \etc., found
themselves in the le’s camp, along with their
capitalist masters, who were compelled to join it, They
joined it after they had. slandered the Soviet Union,
supported the Munichites, disrupted the lar
Front, split the ranks of the working class and seen


4 POLITICAL THESIS OF C.P.1.


the utter fiasco of the foreign policy of their masters.

In the course of the war, the Social Democratic
leaders sabotaged the revolutionary armed liberation
struggles against the Fascists, joining their imperialist
masters, firstly, in relying ‘on the Anglo-American
invading armies and, secondly, in supporting the old
reactionary imperialist agents (Badoglio, Mihailovitch,
Mikolajzcyk, etc.) as against the people’s liberation
movements. Thus they acted as a brake on the initia-
tive of the masses.

Today when in each country the ‘question of fight
against capitalist rule is being decisively posed, the
right-wing Social Democrats, as true reformists, come
out in favour of the capitalist order, as its defenders
and ‘apologists, as a hypocritical “third force” direct-
ing its fire onthe working class ‘and the Communist


Party.
in the -war elections, they capitalised the dis-
content of the masses against’ the traditional bourgeois


parties, and secured majorities in parliaments (Bri-
tain); they capitalised the prestige which the partici-
pation of their ranks in the anti-Fascist struggle had
‘won for them to get into Governments, and split the
ranks of the working class.

‘The Social Democratic leaders, in conformity with
the needs of their capitalist masters, follow a Policy of
attacking the living standards of the working .
of throwing the burdens of the crisis on the workers,
of engaging in a mad hunt for markets, suppress the
working class and the people, attack democratic rights,
pursue an anti-Soviet, anti-Socialist and anti-revolu-
tionary policy — a policy of defending the capitalist
order and taking the le to another war.

The right-wing ial Democratic leaders have
also emerged as the initiators of plans of bestial sup-
pression, of full-scale wars against subject peoples in
revolt at the end of the war. They have combined
their military suppression with new forms of impe-
native ‘bourgeots ‘classes; miscalied, “independence
native rgeois classes, miscal lence.”
The British Labour Government has granted such fake
“independence” to India, Pakistan, Burma, ete.


INTERNATIONAL SITUATION 6


‘The Socialist Government of France, in defence of
the French Empire, is suppressing with armed forces
the Vietnamese people's struggle for freedom. The
Dutch Socialists are fully supporting Dutch imperial-
ism’s colonial war in Indonesia.

The right-wing Social Democratic leaders, under
the dictates of American imperialism, conspire with
the reactionaries in throwing Communist Parties out
of Government, in forming stop-gap coalitions with
bourgeois parties to open the way to reactionary re-
gimes, throw themselves on the mercy of American
money and loans to maintain the present order and lend
their influence to combat the growing wave of revolu-
tionary discontent. Anti-Sovietism, anti-Communism,
defence of capitalism, become the keys to understand
the policies of the Social Democratic leadership.


New Crass ALIGNMENTS


The close of the anti-Fascist war has thus led to a new
constellation of class forces. The old combination, in
which certain sections of the bourgeoisie and their re-
formist hangers-on were found in the people's camp
in the common battle against Fascism, is replaced by
one in which the entire world bourgeoisie, ranged to-
gether with its reformist hangers-on and ‘reactionary
supporters, is attempting to blend itself t to stem
the tide of revolution and oppose the working class, the
people, the Socialist Soviet Union, the Eastern Demo-
cracies and the colonial peoples.

The impact of economic crisis and the imminent
menace of revolution are the basic reasons why the
new set-up comes into existence and the bourgeois
States begin to conspire against the Soviet Union; why
Anglo-American imperialism more and more uses its
majority in U.N.O. as a bloc against the democratic
nations.

Even during.the course of the people's war, the
‘ion between the italist


cont Socialist and the capit


Ids: developing (delay of the Second Front,
‘Anglo-American intrigue to bleed the Soviet Union and
support for reactionaries like Darlan, de Gaulle, Bado-


6 POLITICAL ‘THESIS OF C.P.1,


glio, ete.) After the end of the war and the sudden
release of the economic crisis, the contradiction sharp-
ened immensely.

The basic ‘line of the bourgeois parties in each
country, and of their reformist hangers-on, is to fight
the revolution at home and abroad. That is why the
old set-up completely changes. This is what creates
two camps—the imperialist anti-democratic camp, and
the anti-imperialist democratic camp composed of the
Soviet Union, the Eastern European Democracies and
the fighting le all over the world.

leadership of the ‘imperialist camp is in the
hands of American lism whose strength has
immensely grown in relation to its old rivals. It has
out-distanced Britain to such an extent that Britain is
a spout for alms-at the American door. It has
gained the most from the elimination of its most power-
ful rivals, Germany and Japan; this has whetted its
spa for markets. With its territory far from the
field of war, it was able to develop its resources quickly
in the war period, with the result that today its pro-
ductive capacity has. grown immensely.

With it have grown the lust and need for markets,
for do ion of colonies so that new fields of invest-
ment are and strategic war bases are secured,
for subordinating every Government, whether of a
colonial or advanced capitalist country, to stave off the
crisis in America.

The rise of the American colossus overriding all
other capitalist countries, subordinating nation after
nation to its financial rule and operating as the most
important factor in determining the policies of the cap-
italist world, is one of the basic elements in the new
a

maintenance and expansion of American im-
perialism can be achieved only by crushing the freedom
and independence of all countries and by establishing
Fascist reactionary dictatorships all over the world. The
necessity of maintaining the old order has forced Ame=
rican imperialism to come out as the open enemy’ of


The role ‘of ‘classes, political: parties, leaders and








INTERNATIONAL SITUATION 7


organisations, therefore, must be judged in relation to
this basic role of American im; lation

Simultancously with this, there has been a flare up
in the inter-imperialist antagonisms. The elimination
of Japan and Germany has not solved but intensified
the-rivalry between Britain and America, and the two
come into conflict in almost every part of the world:
in the Middle East for oil; in South East Asia and
French Indo-China; in Europe, the American dollar
more and more forces back the British sterling. Ame-
rican imperialism even holds back British Big Busi-
ness’ own plans for rebuilding British industry, badly
shattered during the war (for instance shipbuitding),
exacting harsh terms in return for its loans; it is by
using this whip-hand that § inuously applies its
pressure to being Britoi within ifs imperialist
orbit, reduci %
and its own satellite.

Today, with Britain dependent on America, the
rival claims are being adjusted in favour of America—
America forcing Britain to pull down or reduce import
tariff walls, give wider scope to American trade, accept
all kinds of conditions on loans and make Britain's
colonies dependent on America. Britain has no choice
as long as aha bontinuea to rereiit a capitalist country,
and. she is forced to trail behind America,

But a solution of the rival claims in this way only
worsens the conditions of the British masses and
hampers economic development. This will lead to
growing consciousness and determination of the British
working class to fight the Anglo-American reactionary
alliance. Thus the basis of Anglo-American coopera-
tion against the Soviet Union, against democratic
revolution, gets weakened by the experience of the
masses.













Ipertatism’s Way Out
Faced with the biggest revolutionary wave menacing
its very existence, with the utter collapse of the one


ist order in Europe, with new gains by
working class and thee people against monopoly capital


8 POLITICAL THESIS OF C.P.1.


and with the threatened collapse of capitalist Production
>>>