Message
of the Manitoba Regional Committee to Ghadarite
Festival, Toronto, September 27, 2009
Comrades,
It is a great
pleasure for the Manitoba Regional Committee to send our deepest revolutionary
greetings to this festival and to all the participants. The struggle against
imperialism and colonialism is an integral part of the struggle of the working
class for emancipation and the struggle of the oppressed peoples everywhere for
sovereignty, human rights and democracy and it is of the utmost importance for
progressive and revolutionary people to support each other in this common
struggle.
The Ghadarite Movement is deeply rooted in the struggle of the
Indian people against British colonialism during the Nineteenth Century and the
newly-emerged British Imperialism of the early Twentieth Century. The economic
hardships created for the Indian people by colonialism and the political
persecution of progressive and revolutionary Indians created Indian émigré
communities in many countries of the world, including Canada and the United
States, particularly during the first decades of the Twentieth Century. As was
the case with previous and subsequent waves of immigration, the recent
immigrants to Canada and the United States were subjected to systematic racism
in their adopted countries. The purpose of this racism was two-fold, first to
suppress the anti-colonial struggle amongst the immigrants and to prevent them
from organizing support for their people back home, and secondly to divide the
working class on the basis of race in order to split and weaken the
anti-capitalist struggles of the people.
The Ghadarite Movement was established to counteract this
two-fold pressure from the capitalist states in North America. It organized the
struggle of the Indian people here against the racism of the Canadian and
American states and worked tirelessly in support of the anti-colonial and
anti-imperialist struggle of the Indian people in the homeland. That support
included raising funds, as well as sending fighters back home to participate
actively in the struggle. Both activities today would be deemed by the Canadian
and American states to constitute illegal support for “terrorism”. However, this is not a new phenomenon and the
Canadian and American states have actively persecuted the members of the Ghadarite Movement from its inception.
The decline of
the British Empire following the First and Second World Wars created a
situation in which Britain could no longer hold onto its colonial possessions
and India achieved formal independence in 1947. However, this did not put an
end to the struggle of the Indian people for sovereignty, human rights and
democracy. It merely changed the nature of that struggle and resulted in added
complexity. The enemy was no longer just the British colonialists and their
Indian collaborators, but also against that strata of
the Indian population that made its livelihood from the exploitation and
oppression of the Indian working class and peasantry. The anti-feudal,
anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles merged with the struggle against
capitalism and for socialism.
As was the case
in the final decades of the anti-colonial struggle, the struggle within the new
situation was led by the communist movement, which enjoyed enormous support
amongst the Indian people. However, a
combination of internal weaknesses and external attacks reduced the
effectiveness of the communist movement, not only in India, but in many other
countries, as well. In India, as in other countries, a section of the communist
movement reduced itself to an appendage of the so-called “democratic”
bourgeoisie, in India represented by the Congress Party. The split in the International Communist
Movement that took place in the late 1950s and early 1960s was reflected within
the Indian Communist Movement and a period of extreme disunity of the communist
movement emerged. The emergence of the Naxalite
Movement during the mid-1960s created two alternatives for the Indian Communist
Movement – the path of revolutionary struggle as opposed to the peaceful and
parliamentary road to socialism. A section of the communist movement actually
sided with the reactionary Indian state in the suppression of the Naxalite Movement.
Within Canada a
section of the communist movement, which the Manitoba Regional Committee is
proud to have been a part of for the past 40 years, immediately supported the Naxalite Movement in India and worked within the Indian
immigrant community in Canada and elsewhere to rebuild the Ghadarite
Movement as a mechanism of support for the Indian revolution. Since its
inception the Manitoba Regional Committee has considered support for the Indian
revolution as its sacred internationalist duty and support for the East Indian
community in Canada in its struggles against racism and other forms of attacks
to be part and parcel of the struggle of the working class for revolution and
socialism in Canada.
Comrades, today
the struggle of the progressive and revolutionary peoples around the world is
extremely complex and difficult. On the one hand, the capitalist system is
wracked with crisis and conditions are crying out for revolution and socialism
everywhere in the world. On the other hand, the revolutionary forces are
divided, isolated and marginalized and, therefore, incapable of responding
effectively within this new situation. However, based on its profound
confidence in the working class and the lessons of history, the Manitoba
Regional Committee remains optimistic that the progressive and revolutionary
forces will overcome these temporary difficulties and will succeed in forging a
new revolutionary movement of the peoples that will prevail in the struggle
against capitalism, imperialism and all forms of reaction. Conferences such as
this are part and parcel of the work to rebuild the revolutionary movement.
It is from this
perspective that the Manitoba Regional Committee hails the Ghadarite
Movement and salutes this conference. The Ghadarite
Movement and similar movements within other national minority communities are
important contributions to the struggles of the working class and peoples
everywhere for sovereignty, human rights and democracy. They weaken our common
enemy and provide a sense of pride and dignity not only within the minority
communities that give rise to them, but also within the entire working class.
Furthermore, by their very nature such movements embody the principle of
proletarian internationalism which is the guiding star of the working class
movement.
The Manitoba
Regional Committee congratulates all of the organizers and participants in this
important event and pledges its ongoing support in this common struggle against
common enemies.
Workers of all
countries, unite!
Inquilab Zindabad!
Manitoba
Regional Committee
September 27,
2009