FOR A RED BENGAL"
FOR AN EXTENSION OF THE STRUGGLE! Over the last vear The Red Mole has carried a whole series of articles analysing the changing political situation in Pakistan and Eastern Bengal. In these articles we very clearly (cf The Red Mole, Jan. 1st, 1971, in particular!) delineated the future enurse of development and events have fully borne out our analvses.
IN EASTERN BENGAL A NLF IS BORN...•• The situation in Eastern Bengal at the moment sees the beginnings of a protracted guerrilla struggle based on the countryside and led by the forces of the left. The A wami League, which we have criticised in the past quite relentlessiv for its total failure to provide a real leadership, is today divided. Many of its student supporters are bitteriv disillusioned with the policies of the leadership and are beginning to appreciate the validity of socialist critiques of the Leagne. The bulk of the constitutionalist elements in the Awami League, who not so long ago mocked the extreme left for talking in terms of "guerrilla warfare", now sit in Calcutta in the Bangla Desh High Commission. Having failed so miserably and imbued thoroughly with petty bourgeois ideology of the most pernicious sort, they depend on the Indian ruling class to help them win back power. They believe in the politics of pressure: envoys scurry hither and thither, sometimes to Washington and sometimes to London. Appeals are made to the American Senate to cut off all economic aid to Yahya Khan. Arif United States imperialism was interested in the plight of the Bengali people. What it probably desires is some sort of a rapproachment between the Awami League and the Yahya dictatorship in order to try and state off the impending social revolution. But the time for that is gone and the State Department probably realises that it is hardly worth antagonising a military dictator whom it arms to the teeth In favour of a party which has been bypassed by historical events. Envovs are also sent to a meeting of the World Peace Council in Budapest (which defunct organisation dutifully passes a banal resolution) and to the "Socialist International"
meeting in Helsinki, attended by such well-known "socialists as Harold Wilson (whose racist policies when Prime Minister, kept out thousands of Bengalis from Britain), and Golda Meir (the Zionist oppressor of the Palestinian masses). Appeals are made to these decrepit and dilapidated organisations as if they were in the least bit interested in the problems confronting the Bengali masses The root to this peculiar approach lies in the fact that many of the Awami League intellectuals and leaders are still dominated by bourgeois ideology. They have failed to realise the reasons for their failure to defeat the .Pakistani army in the first place. They continue to behave in the same old way and find themselves incapable of acting differently. One of the reasons for this is, undoubtedly, the fact that the Indian bourgeoisie has given them asylum, propaganda support internationally and limited military support, the latter controlled firmly by the Indian Armv. It is possible that if these leaders had been really forced to stay and fight in Eastern Bengal as all the left groups are doing today, there evolution would have been different. Many of the Awami Leaguers still seem to believe that once the field has been cleared it will be a return to the wavs of the past. That is why the question of how the field is cleared becomes somewhat relevant. There are certain elements in the Awami League leadership in Calcutta who realise that they have no option but to try and pressurise the Indian Army to "liberate"
Eastern Bengal. In that wav the forces of the Left could also be cleared out of the way and the Awami League placed in power. But even if the Indian bourgeoisie were stupid enough to agree to this or if the Pakistani Army decided on a wider war, it is futile for the Awami Leaguers to imagine that they will remain in power for too long. They have been tested once by the masses and found wanting and it is the revolutionary tendencies which are today in the ascendant and prepared for a long struggle. It is these forces who will clear the field and lead the struggle for socialist revolution.
A National Liberation Front (NLE) has alreadv been set up with the participation of all the left groups except the CP (M-L) group of Mohammed Toaha and Abdul Hug, which had always been luke-warm on the idea of combatting the Pakistan Army. The NLF has created a pole of attraction inside East Bengal already and is beginning to attract many rank-and-file elements inside the Awami League and also is beginning to draw The leading group in the Front is the East Bengal Communist Party (EBCP), which is aligned neither to Peking not to Moseow and has refused to allow Chinese policy of supporting Yahya, stand in its way of vigorously conducting the armed struggle against the armies of West Pakistani capital. This organisation is led by Comrades Matin and Allaudin and its guerrilla units are commanded something of a legend in the Bengali countryside. In Chittagong distriet the leading EBCP cadre is the trade-union leader, Abul Basar, who has been largely responsible for the fact that the Chittagong The fact that even the blacklegs working in Chittagong docks are made to work under Army surveillance gives one an indication of the strength of the workers organisations in this region. In the student mileu the ablest Marxist was alwars Comrade Mahbubıllah. When last heard of he was imprisoned in Dacca jail and it is feared that he might have been killed by the Army. In many ways Mahbubullah foresaw the turn events would take before many of his comrades realised the seriousness of the situation. When I was in Dacca *If there had been a revolutionary party (in 1968-69-Ed.) we would have made a revolution situation we will disagree with them. We know there is a revolutionary situation and we will exploit it. We will not let our generation rot." (cf.
Ali, Pakistan: Military Rule or People's Power!.
bullah's comrades are indeed exploiting and deepening the revolutionary situation.
victory has been achieved.
IN WESTERN BENGAL THE CONDITION the explosion in the East has given it an added and has behaved not much differently from a on the excuse that he was a "dacoit".
BANGLA BESH
BESSALATA sub-continent.
UNEASY.... proletariat. has decided on a prolonged armed strike. in 1969 I met and discussed with him many times and wrote about his assessment of the situation at in East Pakistan. Even now the objective condition:
.. Our taks is to denounce all collaboration with the regime. Even if the Chinese gorernment tells us that there is not a revolutionary What a differeut battle-cry this was when com pared not only to the Awari League, but to many other left-wing currents as well Today Mahbubdetermined to continue the struggle till the final We have alwavs argued that it would be impossible to contain the struggle within the "frontiers" of Eastern Bengal. The situation in West Bengal has been pre-revolutionary for the last few years and impetus. The problem has alwavs been a subjective one. The most powerful and diminant force on the left is still the C.P.L (M). Its recent past has been steeped in electoralism; it has entered into United Fronts with reactionary communal groupings. It Tarig Ali has taken part in the bourgeois electoral farce bourgeois government, Its leader, Jyoti Basu, when Home Minister, ordered the killing by his police of a revolutionary, Guevarist leader, Henna Ganguly, It has acquiesced in the brutal persecution and murder of many Naxalite militants. The fact that it is out of power at the moment does not imply that it has given up the electoral road. Certainly no statements to this effect have been issued recentlv. revolutionary situation when it did not exist. (in 1948) now seems to be unable to perceive the extent of the existing revolutionary situation. Undoubtedly there are revolutionary elements in this party, who are extremely dissatisfied and would favour armed action against the bourgeois state. The CPI (M) leadership has given the slogan: Yahya Khan-Indira Gandhi Ek Hai (Yahya Khan and Indira Gandhi are the same). The logic of this slogan is obvious: to extend the struggle by mobilising the Calcutta working class and preparing the peasantry for an armed struggle, to achieve a United Socialist Bengal, but Jyoti Basu shrinks back from this step. It is obvious, however, that the revolutionar movement in W.Bengal will not sit still for long. Even today there is a total crisis as far as the bourgeoisie is concerned, calcutta is guarded by Indian troops, who seem completely unable to restore bourgeois order. It is a city seething with resentment and ready to explode at any moment. Very reminiscent of descriptions of Shanghai and Canton in the Thirties. It is very likely that there will be spontaneous outbreaks in the very near future. A revolutionary mobilisation in Western Bengal would show us the real nature of the Indira Gandhi clique. It would move in to try and crush the revolt with the same brutality that Yahya's Army used. The possibility even exists of a combined Indo-Pak action against the Bengali masses! But that will happen if the situation really gets out of hand and bourgeois state power in threatened throughout the penisula. The task confronting any revolutionary group in West Bengal today is to prepare the masses for the armed class struggle. There are numerous indication: that this process is taking place in many parts of the province. It does not need to be stressed that an extension of the struggle to Western Bengal would radically alter the situation throughout the IN WEST PAKISTAN TOO THE MASSES ARE While the strength of the Bengali resistance is the key factor in the struggle today, a serious crisis of confidence in West Pakistan would be of immense importance as it would weaken the grip of the Army immeasurably. While there has been no serious sign of an impending revolt in the West, the symptoms have certainly appeared. Over 800 students have been jailed in West Pakistan; in Peshawar, Afzal Bangash (a leader of the small, but militant, Kissan-Mazdoor Party) has been arrested along with some of his party workers; in Lahore a leading journalist, Malik Abdullah has been imprisoned for decluring at a public meeting his solidarity with Bangla Desh. Illegal leaflets we being distributed informing the workers of what hai been happening in the East. All this coupled with an deteriorating economic situation could produce a social upheaval in West Pakistan sooner than many would think. A railway strike, for instance, could seriously hamper army operations in Bengal. It should be borne in mind that the West Pakistani working class has matured amazingly sinee 1968-69 and the only lack is the non-existence of an effective leadership. Bhutto's People's Party is split from top to bottom and while the leader and his cohorts comfort the military regime, many militant like Mukhtar Rana in Lyallpur are in prison for opposing the dictatorship. The overall situation is extremely unstable and some elements in the Army are said to favour a limited war with India in order to blanket the country with chausinism.
In today's situation I doubt whether even that well-tried solution would work.
However long the struggle in East Bengal lasts, of one thing we can be sure: a new road has been opened and the sub-continent will never be the same again. It was united by British imperialism, it was partitioned by internal reaction aided by this Imperialism. Todav we prediet that it will first be tom asunder by revolutionary socialism and then brought together again under the hege mony of the red flag. That will be the dialectical process of the Indian Revolution....
Postscript: We have noticed that the gentlemen mol publish the Workers Press have, in the best Stainis tradition resorted to slander and willifications of a completely apolitical nature in their reports of my recent visit to Western Bengal. This shows their total inability to chollenge any of our theme politically. When they attempt to do so we will be more than prepared to debate with them either in our prem or at a pubile forum and me will do so an revalutionary murcists, without resorting to personal abuse, distortionn or downright lies