JOINED INDIAN TROTSKYIST MOVEMENT
[In our June 24 issue, we reported that the Socialist Workers Party of India had formed a state unit in Gujarat, electing Magan Desai of Baroda as its secretary. The designation of Desai was something of a sensation, since he had bbaheea a prominent leader of the . Communist Party of India’ (Marxist).
[Magan Desai, who is now 35, joined the Communist movement in the- early fifties as a student of architecture, soon becoming a full-time organizer for the party. When differences developed fol- — lowing the Sino-Indian border dispute, he joined the left faction and became-one of the founding members of the Communist Party of India: (Marxist): when the: pro-Peking grouping decided to launch’ a» =| new organization in’ September 1964.. Arrested and jailed, together .— with: many other leaders of the left-wing party, he did considerable — reading while in prison. As a result of his studies, he announced ©: | his resignation from the party, stating that he had serious differences with the “Stalinist methods" of the" “top leadership. 7
(He- explained his position in a 4O-page: letter of: ‘resignation which he made public. A summary of this letter appeared in the July © issue of Marxist Outlook, the monthly magazine of the SWPI. From this we have taken the following extracts. J
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His basic difference with. ‘the two CPIs is: “the question of the strategy of'the Indian revolution. He rejects the theory of a "four-class bloc" (alliance of the proletariat with the national bourgeoisie) enunciated by the Right. CPI in the name of a "national democratic revolution" and also by the Left CPI in the name of a "people's democratic revolution." He maintains that the character of the revolution in India in the present epoch is "anticapitalist" and "socialist." The original letter is in Gujarati and is being published by the Gujarat Unit of the Socialist Workers Party because of the significant discussion’ it has raised on the problems of. the international Marxist movement.
"After almost two years of serious thinking and . reading - an jail, and on the basis of my past experience and observations, I have come to the conclusion that there exists irreconcilable ideological differences between me and the party and I do not see: any - possibilities of overcoming these differences in the near future," writes Magan Desai in his letter to the party. He says: "I have still unshakable faith in the ideology of Marxism-Leninism but can- =: not digest the degeneration it has undergone in the hands of Stalin!’ and subsequently of Khrushchev and Kosygin. Nor do I accept the: interpretation of Marxism-Leninism by 'radical' Mao Tse-tung. Since. Lenin's death, Marxism has been reduced {to a sect under the leadership of ‘Stalin and his blind followers. as
The author of the letter appears to have reexamined his own:
"Stalinist" past in the light of his study of some of the fundamental works of Leon Trotsky. Isaac Deutscher's trilogy on Trotsky along with the literature of the Fourth International profoundly influenced his recent ideological orientation.
_. Magan Desai sets out to discuss the degeneration of the Communist movement. in the post—Lenin era on an international canvass. He refers to the peculiar historical conditions in which a bureaucracy emerged in the Soviet Union, the first workers' state, economically backward, isolated by civil war and interventionist war and failures or betrayals of socialist revolutions in different countries.
“He. ‘explains how the Stalinist bureaucracy which usurped the leadership of the Comintern betrayed the revolutions in China (1925- 28), Spain (1945-37) and Greece (1943-47) and contributed to the emergency of Nazism in Germany (1930-33) by its anti- Marxist sectarian or opportunist policies.
He traces the root cause of the pureaucratic degeneration of the Communist parties to the Stalinist theory of "socialism in a Single country." which led to the subordination of the world movement to the diplomatic needs of the Soviet bureaucracy. This also led to the liquidation of Soviet democracy and suppression of inner- . party democracy in the Communist party in the USSR and the ultimate physical liquidation of the Bolshevik Old Guard.
In this context while explaining the Leninist concept of proletarian democracy, the author refers to Lenin's "Last Testament" and the struggle Lenin put .up in his last days against the dangers of a bureaucracy consolidating itself: in Soviet society. Magan Desai maintains that in none of the "socialist. countries" (workers states). does real soviet democracy exist today. He therefore stresses the need for. political revolutions. in ail ‘these, countries to restore soviet. democracy. 7 ae ot
He cites the Hungarian Revolution (1956) to illustrate how the workers in "socialist" countries can struggle against their bureaucracies to restore soviet democracy. He says that Khrushchev -- egged on by Mao -- ordered the Red Army to suppress the Workers Councils in Hungary. An important question is-posed: "How can the Soviet and the Chinese bureaucracies permit soviet democracies in :..:. other socialist countries. when they do not / permit soviet democracy" : in their own countries?" :
“About the Chinese revolution he states that Mao and colleagues led.-it to a victory in spite of Stalin's opposition;. but notwithstanding the Maoist theory of a "four-class bloc" and "people's : democracy," the Chinese revolution could not be contained within . the. framework of a so-called. "people's democracy". and.it uninterruptedly developed into a socialist revolution, confirming the Marxist (Trotskyist) theory of "permanent revolution." While the Chinese have resuscitated some Leninist principles in the struggle against Khrushchevism, he points: out that Mao, like Stalin, has denied. soviet
democracy to: the Chinese proletariat and has liquidated his political opponents inside China.. . -
Says Magan Desai: "It is regrettable that the Chinese are vociferously repeating the old discredited.Stalinist slanders against the old Bolsheviks (Trotsky, Zinoviev, Bukharin, etc.) and are thus injecting: poison into. the minds | of the new Bolshevik generations of Asia,: Africa and. Latin. America.
About the drive for so-called de-Stalinisation in the USSR and Khrushchev's revelations in 1956 of Stalin's crimes, Magan Desai points out no light had so far been thrown officially on the circumstances in which the phenomenon of Stalinism emerged in the Soviet Union.
He has linked the history of the CP of India and various twists and turns in its policies with the ever-changing shifts in the short-sighted diplomatic manoeuvres of the Soviet bureaucracy with the capitalist powers, He discusses how the CPI played. the. role of. supporting the imperialist war and sabotaging the anti-imperialist mass movement in 1942. He says: "In the name of defending the Soviet Union, the CPI exhibited an opportunist and. escapist, policy. With the result that it was completely isolated from the toiling people and. had to pay a heavy price for it.
. He says that both. the Soviet and the Chinese CPs pursue opportunist policies which subserve their own "bureaucratically conceived national interests." While the Soviet CP had openly given. up the concept of class struggle in the capitalist countries in the name of peaceful coexistence and peaceful transition to socialism the Chinese CP kept mum on class struggle in capitalist countries, especially in countries that are friendly to China.
. He says that in India,.as in other countries, the reformist and left CPs tail-end the Soviet or the Chinese CPs and are not. prepared to learn from the mistakes of the Soviet and Chinese CPs.
Magan Desai rejects the Chinese criticism that Yugoslavia has. ceased ‘to be:a workers state and. become a bourgeois state, .. although he does not agree with Tito's revisionist concepts of Marxism.
: In the Sino-Indian bordex confrontation he ‘thinks that both . the Soviet and Chinese leaders repudiated their internationalist obligations to the:world proletariat. He, however, stands for the 7 defence of the workers states. : The letter lays a great deal of stress on the great moral qualities and humanist appeal of Marxism which has been destroyed by Stalinism. He says: "Marxism-Leninism as a scientific ideology is based on clarity of thought and truthfulness. Marxism was a great source of inspiration to millions. After Lenin's death its decline began at the hands of Stalin and the blind followers who have converted it into a sect." He believes that the younger gener-
ation of Marxists in India should accept the challenge posed by .. Stalinism and endeavour to revive the revolutionary as well as the . humanist values of Marxism-Leninisn.
Magan Desai has also criticised the bureaucratic functioning and absence of internal democracy in the Left CP. He had demanded , that his letter be circulated and discussed among party members but it was rejected. But his resignation and the issues raised by hin . have provoked a major discussion among the ranks of the Right and Left CPI in Gujarat. The document deserves the serious attention of the Communist ranks in the country.
GRIM