Maoists for open, legal action in cities

Hyderabad: The Communist party of India (Maoist) taken aback by massive repression it has to face in several parts of the country, is now planning to initiate open action in cities. The Maoists called for wider mobilisation of people in ‘open and legal’ campaign. The party decided to unleash this activity that has not seen in the recent past, marking various anniversaries.

They include 50th anniversary of Cultural Revolution, 50th anniversary of Naxalbari armed uprising, the centenary of Russian Socialist Revolution and the bicentenary of the birth of Karl Marx. During the hay days of Left extremists in 1970s and 1980s , the then People’s War Group(PWG), the earlier incarnation of CPI(Maoist), used to conduct open seminars , conventions, cultural meets through its mass organisations.

But, a host of reasons led to the virtual demise of such activities in the cities. The Maoist open and mass actions are more or less confined to interior tribal and forest areas only. The party lost the ideological support in the cities and the State repression also had driven them back. In a letter believed to have been signed by (Ganapathy, the party general secretary, (available on http://www.bannedthought.net/India/CPI-Maoist-Docs/Statements-2016/160316-CC-CallForTheFourUpcomingAnniversaries-Eng.pdf)called upon its mass organisation’s leadership to take maximum initiative for organising these events in cities.

The CPI (Maoist) has called for ‘open and legal programmes mainly in the cities to be organised by open organisations either independently or with other revolutionary democratic forces and individuals’. The Maoist party expressed its readiness to observe the anniversary of Naxalbari uprising jointly with other Naxal parties. The central committee of the party asked its units and cadres to ‘show necessary flexibility’ in this regard.

Acknowledging that CPI and CPI(M) will also organsie the centenary of Russian Revolution and Bicentenary of Marx, the central Committee of CPI(Maoist) rejected any joint programmes with them. The letter asked its units to ‘better to avoid uniting with them on the basis of the party banner for these celebrations’ , However, the Left intellectuals even while supporting such parties can be invited to our forums and programmes, the Maoist communiqué added.

The Maoist plan to organise public meetings, hall meetings and seminars in urban areas. Rallies, hall meetings, public meetings, seminars, etc. should be organised by the mass organisations in the cities by mobilising like-minded forces and the people, the party call added.