Marxist thinking old and new

by Robin McGregor

Revolutionary Democracy: New Series, Vol. 1, no, 2 (October 2024)  £7.50 including P&P from NCP Lit, PO Box 73, London SW11 2PQ

Once again, the latest edition of Revolutionary Democracy has arrived from New Delhi. Curiously the October 2024 issue has a number which has been used before so if this review inspires you to order a copy be sure to get the date right.
Slightly slimmer than normal it begins as usual with materials on recent political developments in India and neighbouring countries, with the dramatic events in Bangladesh getting a mention this time. 
An assessment of the five-week Indian general election kicks off this issue. The results saw the ruling Hindu fascist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, lose its majority, but it held on to power thanks to a recently formed alliance with two regional parties.  
This was due to farmers voting against the BJP’s neo-liberal policies, and opposition from minorities and lower caste Hindus about the BJP’s attacks on secularism and fears about the reintroduction of the caste system. Less positively the BJP’s setback was also due to a dispute with their paramilitary allies, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) who did not actively campaign for the BJP, but still supported them. However, the BJP retained huge support, particularly in its strongholds and its allies are firmly committed to neo-liberal policies. 
 Later in the journal there is a brief article exposing India’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Two articles from the pen of Badruddin Umar, Chair of the National Liberation Council of Bangladesh, discuss the overthrow of the Awami League sparked off by student riots about job quotas which the army refused to quell. He also gives a useful summary of the long-term background to these events. 
This is followed by the Turkish writer Mustafa Yalciner who offers an interpretation On Lenin’s approach to the national question as applied to contemporary Asia. 
Returning to India there is a horrific account of child labour on long distance Indian railway journeys. An article on the latest Union Budget for 2024-25 announced in July follows before this section concludes with an account of “Operation Clean Jharkhand”, which is the Indian state’s brutal attacks on the Adivasi peasants living in the eastern state which is a part of the attempt to crush the long-term Maoist rebellion.  
Two declarations on Latin America and the ongoing conflicts from the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Political Organisations (ICMLPO) are followed by the usual range of theoretical and historical materials.
 First we have the first part of an article A V Shchegolov on Lenin’s Criticism of Bogdanov’s Reactionary Sociological Views, which is a translation of a 1937 Soviet work. Unfortunately, and unusually for the journal, this does not come with any new editorial material which would put it in context. We hope this will be remedied when the second part appears.
 A few pages of poetry from Bertolt Brecht, Makhdoom Muhiuddin and Kaifi Azmi are followed by three archival pieces. The first of these is Correspondence between CPI and CPGB on the question of Pakistan and Indian National Unity, 1945 from the Labour History Archive & Study Centre, Manchester.
 This is a memo drafted by S A Dange of the Communist Party of India in November 1945 with a response by R P Dutt of the British party several months later. The discussion showed there were differences of opinion on the demand by the Muslim League for a separate state of Pakistan and on the amount of attention the CPGB devoted to the independence struggles.   
 Next is a 1948 Conversation between JV Stalin and Dolores Ibarruri on the Tactics of the Communist Party of Spain. Here the exiled La Pasionaria discusses such matters as uniting the fragmented resistance to Franco in Spain, anti-Francoists in Mexico and the little help the French communists were giving to their oppressed neighbours. Stalin gave some useful advice based on his earlier experience of working underground and in exile.
 Also from a Soviet source comes the brief Stalin - Zhou Enlai Talk, September 19, 1952 which covers matters such as the release of prisoners of war from the Korean war which was drawing to a close and China’s relations with its neighbours. 
 The issue concludes with a review of a book entitled Albania Challenges Khrushchev Revisionism, originally published in 1976, and now reprinted in Delhi. This is almost entirely based on Albanian leader Enver Hoxha’s writings about the important dispute which split the world communist movement. 
Revolutionary Democracy is a half-yearly theoretical and political journal published in April and September from India. It contains materials 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.