 |
| Bas-Relief at Paveletskaya Metro Station, Moscow, 1949 |
By
Robert Laurie
REVOLUTIONARY
DEMOCRACY
Vol. XXI, No. 2 September 2015 £5.00 + £1.00 from NCP Lit: PO Box 73,
London SW11 2PQ
The latest edition of Revolutionary Democracy, the twice yearly journal from India has
just arrived with its usual mix of interesting, sometimes controversial,
political and historical articles.
The
Indian material includes a piece by Badruddin Umar who shows that the Congress
Party has from its earliest days been far more supportive of sectarian Hinduism
than its secular reputation suggests. He blames these policies for contributing
the rise of the more explicitly Hindu nationalist BJP, which is now the ruling
party in India.
Another historical piece come in the form of printing of a 1951 document
from the Soviet Communist Party of the Soviet Union to the Communist Party of
India in which the CPSU comments on the question of an armed rising in India, a
matter of dispute within the PCI. Stalin did not think the Chinese example was
appropriate for India at that time. He took the view that the military success
of the Chinese party was due to the common border with the USSR which allowed
the Soviet Union to send essential supplies.
Ownership
and access to the land is an important issue for millions of Indians. One
article examines the small print of the 2013 Land Acquisition Act and finds
that it severely restricts the bill’s purported good intentions.
There
are two reminders of the importance of the caste system and the “tribal”
minorities in contemporary India in articles on the Patidar caste and events in
Manipur state. British readers will see some interesting parallels between the
British government’s Trade Union Bill the BJP government’s attacks on trade
union rights.
Silicosis, the incurable respiratory disease
afflicting those involved in mining and quarrying is the subject of an article
exposing business and government neglect of the subject.
Rafael
Martinez contributes an article entitled Podemos’s
Reformism and the Revival of
Keynesianisn which has little on Spain’s reformist social-democratic party,
but is useful for shattering illusions that widely promoted Keynesian economics
offer any real alternative to neoliberalism.
Two
Italian writers examine the present economic structure of Russia today, arguing
that it is now “it is by now completely imperialist (though not at the top of
the pyramid), where industrial capital has merged with bank capital, and where
the big monopolies play a fundamental role”.
A
recent Telugu translation of Moshe Lewin’s 1967 book Lenin’s Last Struggle is the occasion for an overwhelming critique
of his now widespread view that Lenin and Stalin became bitter enemies towards
the end of Lenin’s life.
Vijay Singh is a great admirer of the life and
work of Enver Hoxha of Albania. This come through most clearly in with the
opening article translated from a St Petersburg newspaper of that viewpoint
which argues that the events in eastern Ukraine are largely a result of a
battle between two warring imperialisms, American and Russian, for spheres of
influence. While it provides useful information on the extent of Russian
investment in Ukraine not everyone will be convinced about the general line of
argument.
Other
pieces include a contemporary view of the 1973 fascist coup in Chile from the
Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany which was very critical of the Communist Party
of Chile for accepting the view that a “peaceful road to socialism” was
possible. An account of progress of a project to publish the complete woks of
Stalin and statements from various meetings of members of the International
Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations round off the issue.
No comments:
Post a Comment