Netherlands: Emergency Joint Statement – Free comrade Misir Besra!
We hereby share a joint statement published by REBEL! on the 3rd of August.
On Tuesday the 28th of July, the reactionary Indian state announced the arrest of the last standing member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), comrade Misir Besra. With this, it claims the end of the century-old revolutionary Communist movement in India. In press images they brought out comrade Misir Besra out with a hood over his head and chained, perhaps in an attempt to intimidate the masses and humiliate the fighter who stood for them. To show them that this is the fate that awaits anyone who dares to resist the fascist state’s “Samadhan Prahar” offensive.
What they continue to forget is that the movement derives its strength not from the subjective will of a few brave souls but the objective suffering of the billion-strong Indian masses. Jharkhand is one of the poorest states in India, despite holding 40% of its mineral resources. This is because of the extractive semi-feudal, semi-colonial system in India, which rests on the caste oppression of the Adivasi people of India, and siphons off their wealth to a handful of billionaires. Since India is oppressed by imperialism (principally western imperialism), ultimately this wealth serves to enrich their foreign masters. To drive the Adivasis off their land and make it available for mineral extraction, the state is ready to use private armies alongside its paramilitary forces to genocide, rape and pillage countless villages, with only the CPI (Maoist) to defend them. Anyone who supports the just struggle of the Adivasi people for their jal-jangal-jameen (water, forests, and land) is branded a Maoist and incarcerated or even executed, without any due process.
All this reveals is the old state’s own fear of losing its grip on the people, as the discontent of the Indian masses intensifies amid continuing crisis in the world imperialist system. This is why it uses Israeli drones against the Adivasi people’s resistance, pellet guns against student protesters, and draconian laws like the UAPA against democratic activists. The decrepit Indian state can do its best to suppress the masses, but the objective development of history will seal its fate in the trash heap.
We stand firm in our continued solidarity with the revolutionaries in India and demand the immediate and unconditional release of comrade Misir Besra!
FREE COMRADE MISIR BESRA AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS IN INDIA!
DOWN WITH BRAHMANICAL HINDUTVA FASCISM!
JAL-JANGAL-JAMEEN FOR THE ADIVASI PEOPLE OF INDIA!
(Signatories: Revolutionaire Actie, Inquilabi, RFL, Balikbayan, Lestari Bergerak)
