In the first part, we deal with K. Murali’s concept of bureaucrat capitalism and bureaucratic bourgeoisie. In the process, we discuss the general yardsticks to determine the character of a capitalist class and therefore discuss the concepts of comprador-bureaucratic bourgeoisie, national bourgeoisie, imperialist bourgeoisie and ‘junior partner’ or what Mao termed as ‘reactionary national bourgeoisie’ in the light of writings of Mao Tse-tung and other comrades from the Chinese Communist Party. We also discuss Murali’s reading of the history of Indian capitalism and Indian bourgeoisie in the light of some authoritative historical works. In the second part, we will deal with Murali’s concept of semi-feudal relations in agriculture, in general, including the questions of feudal ground-rent, absolute and differential capitalist ground-rent, lease-price, forms of tenancy and the role of usury.
Fascism
Once Again on the Question of Fascism and ‘Popular Front’: A Response to Comrades of CPI (ML) Mass Line
The present rise of fascism in India has raised several cardinal questions before the revolutionary communists. These include understanding the nature of present fascist rise and its difference from the fascism of the 1920s and 1930s in Europe, the reason behind these changes, namely, the change in the very nature of capitalist crisis and finally, the question of anti-fascist united front. On these questions, we have written in detail in our work A Menagerie of Dogmatic Blunders. This work is directed against a particularly inane trend within the left, the Lalkaar-Pratibaddh group of Punjab. We have elaborated the same positions in the key paper of the seminar that we organized on the question of fascism in Hyderabad in December 2024-January 2025. However, our position on the policy of anti-fascist united front has invited criticism from another organization: CPI (ML) Mass Line. In the February-March 2025 issue and June-July 2025 issue of their organ Mass Line, Com. Pradip Singha Thakur has written two articles dealing with our position on the same question. We would like to respond to the criticism put forth by Com. Thakur here.
The Three Farm Ordinances, Present Farmers’ Movement and the Working Class
Majority of the poor, lower-middle and middle peasantry is destined to be ruined under the capitalist system. To give these classes any assurance or promise to save small-scale petty production as well as this entire class is nothing but an act of treachery and betrayal against them and making them tail-end the rich farmers and Kulaks politically. So what should we do amongst them? As Lenin said: we should tell the truth! Telling truth is revolutionary. We should tell them about this inevitable destiny that awaits them in this capitalist society, make them conscious about their main and foremost demand that is the right of employment, and profess that their future lies in the system of socialist farming, that is to say, cooperative, collective or state farming. Only such a system will give them permanent redemption from poverty, starvation, insecurity and uncertainties. Our long term aim is certainly the socialist revolution. In the short term, the fight for the right to employment, the fight for labour rights for farm workers, and freedom from all debts can be our only struggle. Only such a program will take forward the class struggle in the countryside, and will organize the rural proletariat and semi-proletariat class into an independent political force and prepare them for socialist revolution.
The Re-election of Narendra Modi: A Representative Example of How Fascism Functions in the Twenty-first Century
In this essay, we will first evaluate the concrete conditions which led to the victory of Modi-led NDA in the sixteenth Lok Sabha elections. Subsequently, we will analyse the particular characteristics of fascist rise in the Twenty-first century and its difference from its early-Twentieth century avatar, on the basis of the concrete example of Modi's second victory. Finally, we would like to argue that it is not the time to lose heart and sink into the oblivion of desperation and rather prepare for the new phase of struggles with an effective anti-fascist political program that suits to the present times and is able to defeat fascism.
Lessons for the Saner Segments Who Wish to Inhabit the Margins Forever
First of all, the article constructs the ‘margins’ as quite an alluring place to be in. Consequently, those who still are not on the margins and therefore, can anytime move towards the political mainland, or else those who are not on the margins of their own will or choice or possibly are not conscious of their position on the margins; for all such people this article paints the ‘margins’ as a desirable place. Secondly, in the process of constructing the ‘margins’ as something alluring, this article makes a travesty of both history and ideology. The understanding of history and ideology of Fascism which has been put forth in this ‘wise men’s reading’, can be called, with utmost liberality, poor and infantile. Therefore, in order to have a clarity of vision on some key issues pertaining to the questions of ideology and history too, we consider it crucial to present a thorough critique of this article.
The Resistible Rise of Fascism and the Challenges of the Working Class Movement in India
The phenomenal victory of Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance on May 16, 2014 and the consequent attacks on civil and democratic rights, students movement, women's movement and most importantly the working class movement and workers' rights haveraised several questions, regarding the character of the Modi regime, the conditions that led to the rise of communal Fascists to power, the failure of the revolutionary Left, the role of the parliamentary Left and the Social-Democrats as well as the peculiarities of Indian Fascism and the challenges of the revolutionary Communist and working class movement. Needless to say, the present unprecedented rise of Hindutva Fascism to power must be located in the overall rise of Far Right (often Fascist) forces around the world following the beginning of economic crisis in 2007. From 'Golden Dawn' in Greece to 'Pegida' in Germany and Britain and 'National Front' in France, 'Svoboda' in Ukraine or 'Reclaim Australia' in Australia, the Fascist and Far Right forces have received fillip from the over-all atmosphere of insecurity and uncertainty. The recent crisis is even snatching away the long-held rights of the white-collared workers and the middle classesin the advanced capitalist countries too asthese have become economically unsustainable for the neoliberal states in the advanced world also. The rise of Modi in India or the military rule in Thailand must be situated in the global rise of reactionary bourgeois regimes, including Fascist regimes.
Red Polemique 