Revolutionary Democracy new series Vol. II; No. 2 (October 2025) £7.50 including p&p from NCP Lit, PO Box 73, London SW11 2PQ
The October 2025 issue of Revolutionary Democracy has safely arrived in London for New Worker readers to acquire their own copy. It contains the usual mixture of material on past and present South Asian politics, archival material and statements from Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations’ members on various issues such Bolivia and the Middle East.
In the first category there is an interesting short piece on overthrow of the Maoist Nepali government which is blamed on “the old elites of Nepal, the military bureaucracy complex, hiding under the banner of the youth protest”. A regular RD contributor, C N Subramaniam writes on the BJP Government’s drastic watering down of India’s labour laws. A shorter piece describes the same government’s disenfranchising masses in the state of Bihar by demanding that potential voters present a plethora of documents to get on the electoral role. These new regulations were introduced because the BJP failed to secure a majority in the Hindi speaking state. This would never happen in Britain where Sir Keir Starmer simply cancels those elections he knows he will lose.
Much of this issue is devoted to the life and times of Badruddin Umar (1931-2025), an Oxford educated veteran of the Bangladesh communist movement. His politically engaged family emigrated from India to what was then East Pakistan in 1951 to escape the post-Independence communal violence. His career as a lecturer in several universities was abandoned in favour of political activism. Among other things he edited the East Pakistan Communist Party (ML)’s weekly and was president of the Bangladesh Peasant Federation. He long opposed the country’s ruling Awami League and the welcoming of multinational corporations who developed the country’s highly exploitative garment industry. He was also no friend of the present regime, a fact made evident in his own article on the Post-July uprising in Bangladesh.
Of specialist issue are two articles devoted to the 1975 resignation of the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the political lessons which are to be learnt from that episode. Another is an interesting review of a book entitled Stalin and Indonesia. Soviet Policy Towards Indonesia, originally published in Russian 22 years ago, that provides a useful summary of a neglected but important topic.
This long-standing Indian Marxist journal supports a particularly dogmatic trend in the world communist movement and so it’s not surprising to see that nature of the Chinese state is the focus of an article entitled Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics by the New York based Towards Marxist Leninist Unity group. Less controversial is a shorter piece equally appropriately entitled Trump is a continuation of the politics of imperialism, albeit in decline as well as a topical article on Developments in the Middle East by Hamma Hammami from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Another instalment of extracts from a 1937 Soviet book by A V Shchegolov on the Soviet philosopher Alexander Bogdanov (1973-1928) is provided while the main archival material in this issue concerns talks held between Joseph Stalin and Kim Il Sung held in both 1949 and 1952.
These are prefaced by an introductory article by RD Editor Vijay Singh in which he claims the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) never became a proper dictatorship of the proletariat because is allowed rich peasants to be involved in co-operative farms. This is a controversial point which the UK Korean Friendship Association took issue with in a substantial critique in a December 2025 blog posting.
The March 1949 talks were largely concerned with previous and future Soviet aid to the DPRK was discussed. The the military strength of the DPRK, which was to be a vital matter the next year was also discussed. In September 1952 the talks, which also included the Chinese, were more urgent due to the war against the Americans being in progress. Here the military situation is discussed in detail, along with essential Soviet and Chinese aid which finally ensured a humiliating defeat for the Americans, something for which they have never forgiven the Korean people.
We also get a 1944 letter from Josip Broz Tito, the head of the Yugoslav resistance during the Second World War, to the Bulgarian communist leader Georgi Dimitrov about the progress of the national liberation struggles in the Balkans.
Finally, this issue continues with publishing documents relating to relations between the Soviet party and the Communist Party of India. In this case 1952 discussions related to the Indian parties internal troubles and its political strategy. Regardless of the merit some of the viewpoints expressed here this issue provides much useful information and food for thought.
Revolutionary Democracy is a half-yearly theoretical and political journal from India. It contains material on the problems facing the communist movement, particularly relating to Russia, China and India, the origins of modern revisionism, the restoration of capitalism in the USSR and developments in the international communist movement.
