India – RSF: Struggle to Revive the Revolutionary Communist Movement and the Revolutionary Communist Student Movement!
We hereby share a statement published by Revolutionary Students’ Front – RSF on November 13.
Struggle to Revive the Revolutionary Communist Movement and the
Revolutionary Communist Student Movement! Identify and Smash Opportunism-Liquidationism-Revisionism! Combat Spontaneity, Liberalism, Subjectivism, Individualism, Bureaucratism, Sectarianism and all non-proletarian Tendencies!
Since January 2024, the revolutionary communist movement in India has faced an onslaught of genocidal repression by the Indian State. Hundreds of communist fighters have been martyred and thousands are languishing in prisons. Political activists have been raided, kidnapped and tortured. A section of the communist forces has been made to surrender publicly. A spectacle has been made of these surrenders, the giving up of arms, photos with ministers of the Brahmanical Hindutva fascist BJP-RSS, former Adivasi fighters being made to walk on ramps in fashion shows – all to create the illusion that “Maoism is dead”. However, the Indian state knows that an ideology can never be killed until one wipes out the material roots of its origin. Marxism-Leninism-Maoism can never be destroyed as long as oppression exists. So the State keeps on waging the war on an ideological level through its Surajkund Policy.
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism teaches us that the material world is in a state of constant motion. Nothing remains static; therefore, even after a process of consolidation, the task of further developing and strengthening the revolutionary communist movement politically and ideologically in step with the changing times must be an ongoing and continuous process. We must carry out this work at every moment. To strengthen the movement politically, ideologically, organizationally, and militantly and to eliminate any non-proletarian trends from within its ranks – it is essential to consistently pursue the policy of internal rectification. This is especially critical today, as the ruling classes wage an ideological war against us to weaken our movement; to defeat this, we must further develop our existing forces.
In this period of crisis, a trend of Opportunism-Liquidationism-Revisionism has gripped the movement strongly. This trend is not something that has appeared out of thin air. The State has been able to portray an all-powerful image of itself, so some activists have now started believing that even a just war is futile against such a powerful enemy. Once-leaders of the movement like Manjula Venugopal are openly surrendering and shaking hands with the leaders of BJP and taking up government jobs. Other leaders like Tirupati Thippiri are openly surrendering to the State and are still maintaining that they want to convert the entire revolutionary communist movement to bourgeois-democratic legalism. Some activists (especially of petty-bourgeois backgrounds) have mentally surrendered to the State. However due to their petty-bourgeois ideas of “image” and “face loss” they cannot resign from the ranks of the revolutionary communist movement openly. So they remain within the movement and bring in these ideas of “using only the democratic and legal” means of struggle. Have we not seen this excuse for democracy being used by Bernstein, Kautsky, Khrushchev, Deng, Prachanda? What is this if not opportunism? What is this if not liquidationism? What is this if not revisionism? All of them have forgotten that feudalism, comprador and bureaucratic bourgeoisie and imperialism are paper tigers.
Many political questions and debates are taking place in this context. But if the politics behind these debates are to be analysed, we will see that debates are happening within two separate camps and there is a clear demarcation line. One camp is carrying forth Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin-Mao’s line of “firmly grasping revolution”. The other camp is carrying forth Bernstein-Kautsky-Khrushchev-Deng-Prachanda-Avakian’s line of “democracy”. What they mean by this democracy is democracy for the ruling classes – democracy of the ruling classes against the democratic dictatorship of the oppressed classes.
In this state of struggle, it is only natural that many comrades are confused by the internal two-line struggle of the movement. Many comrades within our organization, within the state of West Bengal, even nationally and internationally have been confused by the ostracisation of activists like Seema Azad and Vishwajay. Their current political trajectory marks a significant departure from the revolutionary line grounded in Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Far from advancing the consolidation of revolutionary forces, their political positions have instead created confusion and uncertainty about the necessity of revolutionary politics, the need for revolutionary organisation, and the methods through which revolutionary struggle must be waged. In our interaction with comrades of the Bhagat Singh Students Morcha (BSM), we came to know of the struggle they have led against their former comrades. Revolutionary Students’ Front (RSF) stands in complete and unflinching solidarity with our comrades of the Bhagat Singh Students Morcha.
It must be kept in mind that these counter-revolutionary positions did not develop in a day. They began with the fostering of non-proletarian tendencies like liberalism, individualism-bureaucratism, spontaneity, subjectivism and sectarianism. In our semi-feudal country, the winds of privatization, globalization and liberalization have ushered in a chaotic blend of consumerism and individualism – that has permeated the ranks of the communist movement as well. Organizationally, this manifests as a form of anarchic thinking that runs counter to the principles of democratic centralism. It replaces collective decision-making and committee-based structures with rampant individualism, egoism, self-centeredness, and a craving for personal recognition – fostering an environment among comrades where liberalism and sectarianism go hand in hand. To fight this, we must foster unity with those who can be united with – keeping in mind Comrade Mao’s principle of “cure the sickness to save the patient.” We must undergo constant criticism and self-criticism, rectification and ideological struggle to revive the iron-clad discipline of revolutionary communist organisations. We must take “concrete analysis of concrete situations” and find ways to function in these situations.
We call upon the revolutionary masses of this country to reject the politics of surrender i.e. opportunism-liquidationism-revisionism, combat all non-proletarian tendencies and revive the revolutionary communist movement and the revolutionary communist student movement from this period of crisis to advance the cause of the New Democratic Revolution.
