Saturday, February 19, 2022

The Setting of the Red Star over the subcontinent – The end of the Communist foray into electoral politics.

 

This decade has been quite telling of the Communist electoral experiment in India. While many observers and Communists alike have pretty much panned the Communist Parties in India, barring the Maoist parties engaged in people’s war, for being too engaged and invested in the electoral route to power, there has been equal retorts that it is at least a way to get to power and if you disagree, just look at the Maoists.

The debate itself is one that is largely academic to the point of Communist academicians expounding doctrinaire dogmatism: highly divorced from the reality of the world today and from the reality that is the Indian masses. However, the stand of the Communist Parties on solely relying on electoralism as a route to power has also been a failed strategy. This demonstrated by the Bengal and Tripura routs, with the accompanying shame of fallen Lenin statues. One counter to this is the Kerala re-election of the Communist Party and that is a fair retort that can only be countered by a look at the continuation of the development and social change agenda of the CPIM that, thus far, inspires no confidence. But what are the criticisms and why do they forebear doom and what is the doom anyway?

Tripura – the Communists didn’t just lose but lost to the Far Right BJP, to a buffon-ish, Trump-like character, and couldn’t even defend against physical attacks to statues or to the cadre.

Bengal – from a seven year long glorious reign to be being reduced to 0 representation in the state. This after literally being the only organised entity that fed people and gave them medical assistance during the pandemic.

Kerala – bucked the trend and historically, the Communists returned to power. Albeit by a complete ministerial revamp that has subsequently demonstrated its absolute incompetence in office, buoyed and kept afloat only by the actions and visions of the Chief Minister now.

The overall tally thus since 2014 looks like 3 losses in Bengal and Tripura and 2 wins in Kerala or in more dire terms… presence only in one state, the loss of any notion of a National Party status.

One must be careful here not to look at Kerala’s win as some kind of analysis of what to do right – that will only make sense in 2025 when the second term comes to an end. If this seems like a cautious position, it is because there have been heady mistakes made within the first few months of the Pinarayi govt returning. An incompetent Health Minister taking over in the middle of a pandemic and no course correction in that portfolio allocation, a non-existent Finance minister and Industries minister after a stalwart like Thomas Isaac having warmed the chair for the newcomers, and refusal of Pinarayi himself to cede the Home Ministry portfolio to a full time minister. All indications here are that in 2025, Pinarayi himself will fall prey to the very line he used to ensure new blood in Government and will have to step away from being the State leader face for a third term. That will categorically be the end of the Communists because the Party would have made the exact same mistake it did in Bengal and Tripura – relied on the aura of a man over the work of the Party.

This turn of events will depress many a young Communist, a breed today that is torn between being part of a global resurgence in Communism and Leftism and having to explain the ridiculousness of being powerless and just target practice for the far right in many places.

For the old guard Communists, who will inevitably bandy about the old tired lines of bourgeois democratic vagaries, it will also be time of the setting of the Red Star over the subcontinent. The question is where things go from here and what the programs should be.

Mass movements have definitely been a strong point for the Communists and at times since the Modi regime came to power, it had seemed that the Communists, using the Unionist arms, have been able to make more red flags fly. Never forget that the two largest labour strikes in world history were orchestrated by the Communist unions, the Farmers agitation had only one visible party flag at its height – the hammer sickle and star. If these are the standing positives, there are also the corrections to be made. Tripura has seen five years of buffoonery from the local incumbent government and ten years of mayhem from the centre. The feeling of “it was better before” is now truly more palpable than ever. This combined with a splintered and nonsensical agglutination of opposition forces actually give the Communists a fighting chance but only if they abandon the Sarkar-ist tendencies of Gandhian adherence to bourgeois democratic means.

In Bengal, the party has a steeper and higher hill to climb where course corrections involve the change of the old guard, a return to the rural mass bases, etc. The Communists of Bengal will have to re-read Lenin and Mao here and abandon the “healing touch” method of campaigning and increase the mass base. This would enrage many a Bengali communist but the stark fact is that it makes no sense doing rallies at Brigade ground, Calcutta and ending up with 0 seats.  The Communists must stop believing that they are indebted to serve the people whether that translates to power or not. No. The people also have to realise that there are consequences to their erroneous calculations.

But irrespective of geography, there is a more crucial point where the Communists fail and will inevitably bang the final nail on their own coffins – the lack of a long term program. There is simply no vision of the CPs currently for what they want to make India to be in five or ten years. Kerala made a small step by stating that it would eliminate absolute poverty; however, the problem in Kerala was never absolute poverty to begin with – it was middle class stagnation. To this end, by now, a vision should have existed, specifically for wealth creation. This is a vision beyond a party manifesto – it is a vision that should be tangible in the dreams of the masses and the voters.

One cannot but rage at the prospect of a global resurgence of Leftism and even Communism globally and even in the belly of the beast – America but at the same time face a moribund expansionist reality in India.

The Communists of Tripura lie hacked and battered, of Bengal lie singing Bella Ciao, playing Mother Teresa to the poor and overly reliant on Student Politics to provide motivated cadre and existential relief, Kerala’s Communists only speak of the wonders of Kerala and then fight the Revolutionary fight against the bigger US Imperialist threat.

A word here on the growing petty bourgeois influences that are a pathology among Kerala’s Communist minded youth. The infection of anarchist kvostism, identity politics, a disconnection from materialism and mass reality, parochial-ising Communism, and probably the worst of all, looking at the Latin American pink tides in abstract as the way forward ail Communism in Kerala. There are simply too many Communist youth in Kerala that have no working class consciousness. These are kvosts and will inevitably desert the party and Communism, failing ideological development or expansion of the old party into new territories.

Here, the party itself is stuck because it relies on unionism to spread into new territory like the Northern States. And even here, in states like the Punjab and Haryana, the Unionism of the farmer’s agitation and decade long labour struggles have not budged the Politburo to enter into a fresh political ground. It can be said of the Communist Party’s method that it gives a meal, free dialysis and a hug to the masses who have abandoned it and ignores the masses who need it desperately – Tripura’s recent anti-Muslim riots where even battling mobs in one village would have sent a strong message to the victim community would be a million times more tangible than Manik Sarkar’s “condemnations of government policy”.

The future of the Communist Party in India thus appears to be to forever be in mass agitations. It thus can only be concluded that in a sense, the Communist Parties will reboot and restart the Revolutionary experiment that lost its way with the 70 year experiment with Bourgeois Democracy that rendered it moribund.

And that might not be such a bad thing either because at the end of the day, power is not something that flows down from Delhi or through a Parliamentary bill. It is something that comes from the masses to the party and back to the masses. The Farmer’s agitation is a stellar example of how no Government can ever wield the power to overrule the masses. The local and global demise of the Right Wing reactionary trend as providing any solution to working class issues also acts like a bow wave to push the Communist parties to bring the masses back after their fascist “phases”.

The Red star thus will definitely set over the Indian sky but it can also rise only to shine brighter, if the party wills it.

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Why the BJP doesn’t care about job losses and unemployment.


5 years and 2 months into the reign of the BJP Govt and the only stark observation that has hit an avid observer is how the criticisms of jobs and arrested to declining development of the economy is simply water off the duck’s back to the BJP. After nearly half a decade of what seems to the normal observer as failures at Economics, one must wonder whether it is not a failure but actually a solid ideology at work here.

One need only look at our northern neighbour, China, here. What was once described as an Economy on a revisionist and doomed track has clearly demonstrated itself as being anything but an economy that is doomed to failure. This criticism from the Left, almost 20-30 years ago is now slowly being modified to make it appear that the very clearly Capitalist mode of production that is practiced in China is, Capitalism being used to further Socialism – this is up for debate and knowing the Chinese, one will never really know the truth; however, we do see the results and that appears to ratify the theory of Capitalism used to further Socialism. Of course, why the Global Left isn’t comfortable calling China, “Capitalism with a Human face” is intriguing. But, if we can free ourselves of nomenclature and ideological burdens, then we see economics for what it is. The takeaway from China in all that has been said is that there is a method to what might, at times, seems like madness.

In the Indian context, there have been three phases, thus far, of economic ideology: the planned market economy, the neoliberal model, and now the Post-Neoliberal Indian model. Clearly, the only good period for the economy has been the neoliberal period with its massive growth spurt and couple this with the fact that there was some form of a social security net, there was some trickle down that lifted the masses but almost permanently disabled a Revolutionary Left movement from ever being a viable alternative. That side project being completed, of eliminating the biggest threat to the Bourgeois democracy, the subsequent years of development could now focus on ensuring the accumulation of wealth to the Bourgeoisie. It was toward the end of 2014, that this project started crumbling and inevitably, with a stagnation of incomes and opportunities. The post-2014 scenario was when the new paradigm shift began. What was this shift? The shift clearly is to seemingly modernise existing industry to shift away from Production to Services, from Agriculture to Industry, and finally to transform Labour into a Service sector scavenger rather than a value producer.  

This would tie in very well with the 5-year long slump in Job creation for the Nation and the Government not really giving a damn about it. The ideological bent of the economists in govt here is to change the Indian worker from one that works in a factory to one that is either working in a start-up industry, tech, or in the so-called Gig economy. The government clearly also realises that such a transition is one that takes decades to implement and will inevitably run into a phase of high unemployment in the interim; as jobs in the new economy, firstly, don’t really exist and secondly, the industry itself is not big enough or aligned to high employment. This is of course a problem of Neoliberal economic ideology, where the reality and material conditions of the world are ignored, and the focus is more on a Utopian end objective. It is even further incompetence on the part of a Govt to continue to follow a Neoliberal model that has already been proven to be a failed economic system world over.

In some other innocuous ways, we also see the policy of the destruction of the Indian Baniya Class or the Petty Bourgeois class along with the Hindu Middle Class. This would seem counterintuitive as these are the sponsors and core support bases of the Hindu fascist right; however, both these sections of society are also those who have stopped India from achieving any form of progress. The Petty Bourgeois in India were supremely powerful in influencing policy and trade decisions in India. Ironically, this proved to be a certain barrier against the worst effects of Globalised American Imperialism. This is a problem for the Corporations and the highest echelons of the Bourgeoisie. Thus, with the BJP as a party that is now run almost exclusively by corporate funds and not petty bourgeoisie funds, has thus trained its guns on its erstwhile baniya support base. Retail FDI was one danger that was taken too lightly by everyone and today, it is no mystery that the likes of Amazon and Walmart have a good ability to end Baniya hegemony of Indian business in a decade.

The Hindu Middle Class is much more complicated. This class has traditionally been very opinionated, are getting larger in number and are not supine enough to allow being ridden roughshod over. Thus, the attack… on the middle class incomes, employment, welfare, and infrastructure began. Labour unions and worker collectivisation is almost a crime in many states in India thus ensuring that the Middle Class cannot be heard when they scream. This was not done in 2014 but rather way before when liberalization began. The entire ideology of the middle class thus changed to pander to an alienated, class-unconscious, numbed population. 2014’s fascist turn of the Hindu Middle Class was an exercise in the shift from Class consciousness to Reactionary, Ethno-Religious Nationalism. De-jargonised, this basically meant that the urban, Hindu Middle class was now chugging on the opium of bigotry, casteism, bloodlust, to ensure that no matter how much they were economically whipped to death, they stood by the very govt that was whipping them. This movement will continue and it will achieve a critical velocity after which it cannot slow down. The middle class will then start to eat into its own and fracture and fragment, become sectarian to the point where they weed out the infidels among them.

The big question is where does all this end? If one was to sketch out a picture it will  be one of where the Lower Classes in agriculture have all migrated to the cities for sustenance thus forming an army of the Unemployed to ensure that wages are perpetually low, agriculture will be corporatized, industrial might will not only be in the hands of the few but it will also be in the hands of foreign capital, unemployment will mostly remain at the levels you observe today because 10 years of any aberrant phenomena become a material reality in India, and eventually the so called Indian growth story will eventually die off like it has for nearly every developing country. The misery of today will stagnate where we have the growth of an African sub-Saharan nation or a member of east European nations, but without the labour mobility.

Friday, May 24, 2019

Are Non-Hindutva voices living in an Information Bubble?

As the data streams in about voting patterns across the states that tell us how the 2019 Indian elections for the Centre went, there appears to be some glaring indications of intelligence failures in the opposition camp – and this is the case at the partisan and public levels. While the Opposition Party intelligence failures are actually quite common, what is stark is the level to which the voices Opposed to Hindu Terrorist ideology – Hindutva misjudged things. This intelligence failure is an indictment of the Class and Caste nature of most of those who are from the Opposition, non-party camps as well as the Media that the Liberals and Leftist voices have been consuming.

The Caste and Class divide.

It is no act of brilliance to label the Opposition voices, those of the Urban, Upper Caste elites, the Highly Educated Bahujan voices, the Upper Class subaltern voices, and in general, the English speaking folks – whether as a first or second language. The nature of human engagement is such that in a political environment of engagement and battle, humans seek solace and an emotional recharge amongst their own. This is especially true for those who are Political because of their ideological convictions.

Ideology, being an inexact science and previously mostly the purview of academics, is something that the common masses need social affirmation about. For a very common example, an affirmation of the tactical and strategic lines of a party are usually never ratified by the supporters in any kind of empirical canvas but rather as a group therapy session of “you’re on the right path” rhetoric, or on some historical events of similar magnitude or genre.

This means that in the 5 years of Modi’s rule. There was little effort that was put into gathering intelligence on the moods, wishes and aspirations of the large mass of the population. What was passed off as intelligence was mostly a theoretical and academic understanding of the rural mindset, the Bahujan mindsets, the economic and national aspirations of millennials, etc. Thus, the Dalit was always assumed to be someone who lived in a slum, was insulted and beaten by Savarnas 15 times a day, and went home to read Ambedkar at bedtime. Also, a great assumption was that all Dalits are in a state of readiness for revolution. This of course is the popular stereotype of the Dalit that has been fed to us by our peers or our “senior” peers in our respective social bubbles. But it is a stereotype, nevertheless. It ignores the material conditions of Dalits in general, it assumes that Dalits have transitioned into having revolutionary potential and ignores that 70 years of Capitalism have mostly subsumed Revolutionary Consciousness under Alienation and the Liberal false consciousness.

Thus, when the 2019 UP Bahujan alliance fell apart at the polls people are left wondering how it could have all gone wrong? The popular thought that pervades the subconscious being one of “treachery” by the Dalits. Again, the obvious Brahminical mindset comes forth assuming that Dalits must follow this path and not choose their own – their own path if ideologically different, being treachery. What has not been understood is the material conditions of the Dalits. Yes, they are oppressed and they know it but they are not willing to attack power to achieve it OR that they still believe that the crumbs from the oppressor are a better gamble than a future con from the rebels. There is also the very real aspect of the outreach to Dalits by the Hindu Terrorist rightwing foot soldiers. There is of course, finally, the tactical blunders made, when in a bourgeois democracy, of vote cutting, etc. And while the allegations of “Caste is dead” is bandied about by the Right Wing, it would seem a ridiculous charge but what if it has even a slight element of accuracy? If that is the case then a new understanding is required and not caricatures anymore!


Media

What media the Liberals and the Left consume have for the past 5 years in the most obscene act of Capitalism, pandered to the consumer wants instead of the consumer needs. The Wire, Scroll, Newsclick and smattering of individual celebrity opposition journalists have been telling the opposition that the Hindu Right was on the wane, change was nigh. That was of course not true. Why? Simple…. This very media that gives us ideological sustenance to fight, has been a McDonalds that has fed us the junk and fast food of quick narratives and convenient “ground reports.” It has clearly not given us the complete picture in any measure and has thus just existed to feed what is convenient.

Here, we the masses are also to blame for replicating the wrongs of the Right wing by subscribing to knowledge and media that further accentuates the information bubble. Where are the critics and naysayers? Where are those who challenge the narratives our own media put out? Ultimately… What is the real truth?

This now remains unanswered but we must find the answers.

Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Why I voted NOTA….


This has been a tumultuous 5 years, especially for those opposed to the Hindu Terrorist ideology of the incumbent Govt. There are enough reasons given by those of my ilk to vote for the strongest candidate against this Govt and many of those reasons are extremely good as well. The problem however is that it is largely pointless because if the next five years of another government are going to be one which just lays out the red carpet for the same nonsense 5 more years down the line, then what is required is a change of the system itself – not just the Govt.

To my ilk I would say that they have got it ass backwards wrong if they believe first of all that exhorting platitudes on social media counts for anything in reality. I would also go as far as saying that many of my social media ilk didn’t have to face even the smallest problem to their lives under this govt so why are they voting against this govt or voting at all, really? Clearly my ilk are the elite, savarna, English speakers. Nothing changes for them at all except for minor inconveniences… nothing as earth shattering as the midnight knock or anything like that.

This is in fact the time that many of us should be asking if the Opposition or any anti-Hindutva party will actually do what it really takes to ensure the Hindu Terrorist party never comes to power again. And the conclusion to that is why I voted NOTA. No party has put forward my manifesto. I have to choose between their manifestos.

So I ask…

  • Which party promises that any Savarna that attacks a Dalit as part of his religious duty to the fake Hindu Religion will be arrested under UAPA, placed in solitary confinement and then forced labour till death? None.


  • Which party promises that any attempt by the Savarna administration officer to block the rise of a dalit in the ranks or in education institutions will be punished by the seizure of his or her wealth and the wealth of his or her family? None.


  • Which party promises that if a repeat of Asifa takes place that the execution of a Hindu Terrorist will take place in the place of said Hindu Terrorists domicile in Public, in full view of anyone inspired to undertake a similar misadventure? None

  • Which party promises a UBI to anyone outside of a Tier 1 and 2 city in India who does not own land? None

  • Which party promises to ensure a referendum before major infrastructure projects like Metros are undertaken in cities? None.

  • Which party promises a full financial clampdown and investigation into the Hindu Terrorist RSS? None.

  • Which party will make it a criminal offense for any Indian to call another Indian seditious? None.

  • Which party promises to burn the Manusmriti from Red fort every year and spit on the statue of Manu? None.

  • Which party promises to hold a program for a National implementation of the Kudumbashree program? None

  • Which party has the balls to overturn the beef ban? None

  • Which party will make it a criminal offense to protest against the Supreme Court judgements like it did in Sabarimala? None.

  • Which party is willing to pass a law that Police officers who are incompetent are dismissed from service and not transferred. That if their motivation or incompetence results in the death or wrongful imprisonment of an individual, that Officer will face the same imprisonment two fold? None.

  • Which party will hold a right to recall referendum every year? None.

  • Which party is willing to call Israel a terrorist State and sever all ties with them? None

  • Which party has a concrete program to rejuvenate BRICS and make it the one massive power block in the world with the expressive objective of demoting US to 5th place as a world economy? None

  • Which party will ensure universal healthcare, free education to all levels, free housing and a right to employment? None.


If these measures that I deem basic are not on the radars of any party, what the hell is the point?

Fuck the Hindu Upper Caste Democracy. Let it burn!

Monday, November 5, 2018

Facebook Clampdown on Anti-Govt, Anti-BJP voices in India

These are tough and trying times on Indian Social Media, honestly, for both those in and against the Hindu-Fascist Indian Government. While the momentum against the Government has been building up to what is now a deafening crescendo on the one hand, thereby pressuring the ranks of Hindu Terrorist sympathisers, the clampdown by social media giants like Facebook and Twitter on behalf of the Govts Hindu Terrorist sympathisers have been getting more aggressive. 

There were warning signs of these pretty early on as reported in this article by the Liberal online daily, Scroll.in 

Is Facebook really blocking criticism of the Indian government, BJP and Hindutva groups?

Of course, in typical non-committal Liberal style, Scroll decided to keep the reporting on this issue at a super-high level and not delve any deeper into the issue. Kudos however for at least calling it out. 

But these articles aside, the actual scale of Govt and Govt supporter intervention inside Facebook and Twitter is nothing short of macabre. 

Personally, I have been a victim of social media hit squads of the Govt on Twitter more times than i can count and a simple google search of "Comrade Nambiar' will reveal how many times i have come on and off Twitter after suspensions. These suspensions are of course the work of a group of Devotees of the Govt who seem to have gained access to the moderator groups of Twitter and Facebook. Things came to a suspicious head last month when my Twitter account and Facebook page DasBolshevik were suspended on the same day! There is no way that something like that could have happened without a coordinated effort. Perhaps what is even more hilarious is that Twitter and Facebook dont even respond to appeals against suspensions any more. It is just what the India moderation team decides that goes for Truth. As of now, my Facebook account and page has been suspended claiming that my account is a "Spam" account. This apparently because of sharing Anti-Govt posts, which, pardon my lack of humility, have been going quite viral. How a post that garners comments, likes, replies from me to those comments, and that is passed my the mods on specific pages counts as Spam is the most "Hindu-level" of logic i have seen yet. 

What is curious is the pro-Govt bias within Facebook and Twitter is not happening as a Policy of the respective companies but is happening due to looking away at the silent infiltration of the moderator groups within. This is another level of dangerous!

The challenge here remains how to get back or get some kind of proxy access into the belly of the beast again. But all this comes at a huge price in terms of Govt Hindu Terrorist supporters doing their very best to track me down. 

While it is absolutely flattering that a Communist voice has become such an irritant for the Govt in power, it is also quite a pain to have to keep recreating the accounts and losing time during these days leading to the buildup of the elections. 

However, time will tell. My only advice to India now is... This is going to get worse and more malicious!


Saturday, August 18, 2018

The New Revolution - CHAPTER 1: THE EVOLUTION OF LIBERALISM


Part 1: Liberal Democracy

Liberal Democracy is a term that is wrought with many connotations to the credit of the Bourgeois economists and philosophers who coined the nomenclature in the first place. Liberalism itself is a terminology that must be understood as a concept of Political Economy and considering its Historical concept.

Liberalism is an economic concept and not a social one. Liberalism must be misunderstood as “being a Liberal about issues” or “progressiveness.” Liberalism has distinct phases in its development. The earliest form is Classical Liberalism of the Adam Smith and Ricardo epoch. Subsequent economic periods including Keynesian forms gave rise to the Liberalism forms of the post-WW2 years until the advent of the Chicago and Vienna school of thought that brought forth the more obscene forms of Liberalism in what we call today as Neoliberalism. In essence, Liberalism is synonymous with Capitalism and its evolution in Economics.

Capitalism as an economic paradigm was a concept that was invented in Europe, the seat of the industrial revolution, after the slow demise of Feudalism. It was a dialectical shift in economics where Labour became free from its bonds from the ruling elite Feudal lords into selling labour in the market instead. This was an important transition as the ability of the worker to control his labour power ensured that Capitalists and not the Aristocracy now wielded economic power. The Aristocracy then faced the inevitable decline in economic supremacy and eventually extinction. This was not the only advantage of Capitalism, Capitalism changed the method of production from the fields to the factory. This was crucial as it ushered in mass urbanisation and the industrial revolution. With the new religion of Capitalism becoming profit, Technology was embraced to further increase profitability, Science was the new religion that ended the vice like grip of the church upon the state. Capitalism in its Classical form however, did all this without actually benefiting the workers and labour. Marx’s works and critique of Capitalism illustrate this vividly. Capitalism further faced problems when it had exhausted its home country’s ability to increase production and consumption. Hence, countries embarked upon the Colonial adventures to new markets for labour and resources, which were for all useful purposes – slave labour.

The advent of Marx, however, had introduced the seeds of discord in European society and WW1 brought about the rumblings of Revolutionary movements to the fore once again in Europe but this time the Revolutions were to bring the masses of the Working Class to the seat of power. This was successfully done in Russia in 1917. WW2 brought about the worst case study in the decay of Capitalism to light with the Nazi regime in Germany. Fascism was the reaction to the collapse in Capitalism in Europe that found its outlet in the Right Wing, reactionary expression. It is to be noted that Fascists used the failings of the Liberal, centrist govt of the Weimar Republic in Germany to come to power as a populist movement that ultimately created the template for Neoliberal thought of the Corporate-Militarised state.


The end of Nazism and Fascism in Europe and especially the role of the USSR in the war prompted Liberal Democracies of Europe to shift their economic gears to Social Democratic forms of Govt where the emphasis became uplifting the working classes and masses out of their erstwhile misery to avoid them going reactionary. This coupled with the Global growth after World War 2 spurred prosperity for many in Liberal Democracies to the point of even covering up the inevitable 10 year failure cycles of Capitalism.  However, the stage was now set for the Cold war between USSR and the USA. It was in essence, the Corporate world of the West that fought every Revolutionary movement in the World and did everything in its power to ensure that Workers would not gain power in Government.

The Capitalist world finally achieved a body blow against Socialist movements with the ultimate success of their efforts in destabilising the USSR and its break up and reversal back to Russia. It was opined by Liberal philosophers that there would be no more revolutions, that history had come to an end, that Liberal Democracy was the only form of Govt that would exist. Liberalism had in this time morphed into the new form of economic thought called Neoliberalism.

Part 2: Neoliberalism and Late stage Capitalism

Neoliberalism is a concept that is used to refer to the economics espoused by the Chicago and Vienna school of Economics, popularised in govt by Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, etc. The essential difference between Classical Liberalism and Neoliberalism lies in the fact that where previously Govt was required to stay out of the role of trade and economics, neoliberalism postulated that Govt must in fact take an active role in facilitating profit maximisation by individuals and the state. The macabre writings and intellectual musings of Ayn Rand typify the philosophy of Neoliberals as one where the selfishness, greed, and economic genocide of those less fortunate were considered commandments of the new order. It seemed that the World had forgot about the lessons of why Fascism came to the fore in the first place. But this would not bother many beyond the Left as the world had not yet gone into Neoliberalism’s next project Globalisation.

Globalisation was the peak of Imperialism for the Capitalist world. The expansion of Western hegemony in industry and finance into the Third World. The third world was now tapped into using methods like the Global Trade agreements, embargoes, regime changes to ensure that the Third World markets were opened to American corporations. This was a project of Corporate Colonialism as domestic industries died from a lack of demand and labour now being lapped up by higher paymasters. To this effect, the advent of Global neoliberalism on emerging markets of the third world, especially in South Asia, ensured an attack of unprecedented proportions on the erstwhile Feudal ruling classes that survived Mixed Economy capitalism. The effects of neoliberalism were not confined to the third world as the Western world started seeing jobs and industries moving into these emerging markets. With this, corporations moved tax centres away from their erstwhile homes as well. The Western world was now in a death spiral. To add to this slow burn, myriad financial crashes, most notably the 2008 financial crisis, further highlighted the dangerous nature of neoliberalism for the first world.


It is curious to note that Neoliberalism which provided rich dividends to the Western world during the Thatcherite and Reagan administrations, turned into a nightmare for their working classes, while the working classes of the third world benefitted. However, with the current stage of Neoliberalism, the working classes of both the third and first world are collectively suffering financial ruin, stagnating and regressing wages and standards of living.
The world as we know it today is facing a resurgent fascism much as the Weimar Republic did in Germany. And the question comes back to haunt us…. When is the next Revolution due?


Part 3: Social and political impacts of Liberalism.

As Marx had correctly opined that Society doesn’t exist to further Economy but that Society is itself a result of Economy and method of production, it is important to realise the changing mindsets of humanity through the various epochs of Liberalism.

The end of the Feudal Economic system in Europe was the first in Revolutionary uprisings. Previous economic systems like primitive Communism and Slavery were rarely destroyed by working class uprisings or a slave revolt. The seminal moment of the end of Feudal system was the French Revolution. The three dreaded words to every ruling class hegemon, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, became staples to every democratic constitution from this Revolutionary even. The French Revolution also saw an explosion of Political thought into the mainstream like Anarchism, Syndicalism, Communism, Socialism, Libertarianism, etc. Most of the thought that blossomed in the new atmosphere were of course Leftist forms as they were against the establishment ruling elites and the ruling class. Left didn’t even necessarily mean Marxist or Socialist just yet but rather popular uprising. But the most important point to note was that the working classes and the masses dared to dream of power and they got it as well.

World War 1 was another moment for Europe, which by now was the cradle of political change. Being one of the bloodiest wars the world had seen to that point, the war was epitomised as one where the Working Classes were fighting battles for Kings and Imperialists. It was this realisation and articulation of the nature and purpose of this war that gave Marxists of all persuasions their legs to rise. Lenin had perfectly articulated this in calling for the proletarian masses to stop fighting each other and instead initiate revolutions against their ruling classes instead. The end of this Great War saw the end of many monarchic rules in Europe and the transition to Liberal Democracies. It was at this time that the Russian Revolution took place and the transition from Monarchy to Socialism was affected. This was a daring experiment for humanity and a life or death situation for the ruling classes of every other country, as the once unwashed, labouring masses dared to take political power. It was impudent, insolent and dangerous to the Rich. Despite many attempts of the Liberal Democracies and leftover monarchies of the time to destabilise the Revolutionary Govt, the new Union of Soviet Socialist Republics transformed from the backwater of Europe to becoming an industrial superpower. The insolence of the Working Classes led by the Communists didn’t stop there. Communism was now an acceptable form of thought that transcended borders, threatening the rule of the rich bourgeoisie. The people had moved on from daring to dream of freedom to being the ruling class and being better, more efficient rulers that the erstwhile Feudal and capitalist class.
The destruction of World War 2 and the spread of the Working Class ideology led to the next phase of humanity. China, Vietnam, Korea, Eastern Europe, Africa, South Asia, South East Asia, Latin America, and the World in general was now captivated by the need for change from the old order of erstwhile aristocrats and the bourgeoisie cornering power. Communist movements were now ambitious to the point of militarising to seize power and the world from the 50s to the 70s saw half the world turning Red in various flavors, fascism was discredited and inhuman, blatant Capitalism had been exposed and turned to Social Democracy to survive the onslaught.


However, the end of the War had another effect in another part of the world which over time would cause the end of the working class ideology as the Utopian ideal. In America, by the end of the World War, there was a thriving Communist movement. This movement was already emboldened by the Soviet Revolution and had already questioned the ruling elites there and threatened Revolution. Such was the power of Communists, Unionists and Socialists of the US that Social Security there was born of the threat of popular revolt. But after the War, the mood had changed and with the demise of fascism, the ruling elites returned to their aim of destabilising the Soviet revolution. Communism became a dangerous and violent ideology that was outlawed by the US and many Capitalist dictatorial regimes, intelligence agencies put all kinds of Leftist under watch, leaders were assassinated and in the US witch hunts followed. Any form of Leftism in the US was purged. The US Govt also indulged in imperialist wars in Asia to unsuccessfully stop the spread of Communism. These wars were brutal and never ended till the late 90s. This was the Cold War. It was anti-Soviet but more importantly anti-Communist.

The use of propaganda on the working masses was at its peak that labelled the US Cold Wars against the USSR as that of one of “Freedom against Oppression.” Communist countries that espoused a Proletarian democracy were labelled as dictatorships, regimes painted as murderous – despite the fact that America had already killed more people by this time than Hitler did. Government propaganda on one side, pop culture on the other, and then came the Liberal intellectual onslaught of the post-modernist movement a cultural art movement that was sponsored and nurtured by the Liberal Democratic governments to paint the Intellectualism of the Left as passe and old school, thus poisoning the youth one generation at a time. It is not as if the Communist world did not make its own mistakes during this time as well. Mao’s Great Leap Forward was a botched implementation of a mass industrialisation program, the Pol Pot regime’s excesses, and the revisionist Govt policies of the post-Stalin administrations in the USSR diluted Communism’s strength at its roots. What is perhaps the most successful tactic that Liberalism used is the notion that Capitalism is freedom is democracy narrative. Many of these propaganda pieces are now debunked today and could not survive the passage of time and rigorous rebuttal.


Part 4: The Liberal Manifesto

While much has been written and understood about the manifestos of the Left and Right, there is precious little that can be found as a definitive guide for How to be a Liberal. There is a specific reason for this and that is because of the fact that Liberalism is not an ideology for the Working Classes and masses. This is exactly why Liberalism as a thought process has had to be invented through the machinations of post-modernist authors, anti-communist ideologues and cannibalised from Right Wing novelists and filmmakers.

Liberalism in its essence as an ideology is Capitalism and capitalism can only be practiced by a Capitalist. But this is not to say that there is no part for the Working Classes to play in theatre of Liberalism. The good proletariat in Liberalism are first taught that any movement to the Right or Left are basically indulging in the study of dictatorial and tyrannical regimes. According to Liberalism, Liberal Democracy is the true and only form of democracy that can be practiced. Building upon this, the Liberal proletariat is taught that the fundamental objective in life is wealth and consumption – or consumerism. Consumerism itself is a corollary of classical liberalism that has spewn forth out of Keynesian economic principles when the US was going through a recession and John Maynard Keynes had propagated economic growth by sending money into the population to spur growth further up the food chain.

The next tactic of Liberal thought is to create hierarchies among the working class so that there is no collective and common solidarity that can ever happen. This is the creation of the Middle Class. It is worth noting that until a 70 years ago, there was no class called the Middle Class. There was only the Rich and Labouring masses. The creation of a Middle Class is to extend on the notion of the Marxian Labour Aristocracy – a class that has to sell labour for a wage but its labour is to protect the interest and property of the Rich Capitalist class by attacking the lower echelons of the proletariat. In the modern context, you see this played out as the Manager at work, the CEO, etc who fundamentally work for a wage but only serve the interests of the Board of a company who are the actual owners of business.

In the realm of arts and culture, the methods of Liberal media are myriad. From the use of popular entertainment to portray any Leftism as a being Hippie, Unionism as thuggery, Management as aspirational, and Entrepreneurship as halcyon. Popular arts are also encouraged to pander to human emotions that are as far from an intellectual pursuit as possible. A simple test of this can be check which Pop song talks of an intellectual pursuit instead of being about romance, getting a mate, getting rich or getting drunk.

Inequality is celebrated as merit. This is an extension of the consumerist ideal, where how much you spend defines your worth as a human being. Thus, this means that those who might be of inherited wealth are more celebrated and hold a higher place in society than those who might be more intellectually inclined from the lower income strata. Inequality can also extend into the non-monetary but monetizable talents. Educational inequality is another celebrated aspect in Liberalism with the creation of artificial silos of talent. Take the example of the MBA qualification. Three decades ago, the qualification barely existed and it was created and commodified simply to create an artificial barrier in education and the workplace.

Post-modernism, social justice warriors, identity politics. Post-modernism is a movement that came out of the French universities as a movement as a art movement that attacked the notion of highly utility centric modernism. The thought extended to cinema, literature, etc and the crux of the movement became the active pursuit of hedonism, nihilism, and anti-intellectualism for the sake of it. The focus on individualism over the collective. The advent of the internet has pushed a lot of tertiary leftist movements like women’s liberation and black rights movements into the realm of identity politics. Identity Politics movements are individual movements that essentially ask for Reforms within the liberal establishment to specific identity groups for more equality or parity. On the face of it, identity politics would see to be the more progressive of liberal movements in their nature, but they can never attain true power because they do not challenge power from a collective Class perspective and are usually movements of the more elite sections of society. Feminism is a Liberal movement that was derived from the Women’s liberation movement in Socialism and its aims are thus restricted to more equality rather than absolute takeover of power.

Liberalism doesn’t stop there. It also encourages the members of the working class to support its political stands, even if that stand is fundamentally against the interests of the Working Class itself. A typical example of this is in the propagation of the philosophy that welfare expenditure is a waste and is being lapped up by freeloaders and the undeserving. The projection that any welfare expenditure by the Govt is inefficient and prone to corruption but the same service when done privately is absent of the same ills is another tactic used by the Liberal Ruling Elites to remove the working class from Govt and accessing its benefits. To this end, the most successful propaganda tool of the Liberal Elites and Propagandists has been that Privatisation is good and Govt is bad. It is also on of the foundations of neoliberal economic plans.

Part 5: The Growth of Proto-Fascism and Fascist rule

The disenchantment with Leftist ideologies among the working classes has had a profound effect on the post-Soviet generations that can be grouped under the demographic of Millennials. One of the most stark characteristics of this generation is a Nihilistic tendency towards political thought, a Fatalistic approach towards dealing with the problems of society at large be it inequality, sustainability, or any such issue, and as a result of consuming information from Liberal media, an inability to envision systemic change as a possibility leave alone as an inevitability. In summation, one can say that the sustained effort of Liberalism to crush all Leftism and the working class has ensured that when Liberalism fails, the Right Wing and Fascist ideals are what the working class get inevitably drawn to.

The mechanics of this tendency towards Reactionary sentiment is something that always escapes Liberalists because, as mentioned earlier, Liberalism is not a formative social ideology of the masses. However, the creation of a proto-fascist atmosphere, while it might be the doing of Liberal politics also has its growth stimulus in the absence or inability of the Left movements to stem Reactionary tendency among the proletariat. There can be many reasons for this from an absolute absence of a Leftist movement like in America, to the ideological inability to define primary and secondary contradictions in the material conditions of a certain society like in India, to the inability of the Communist vanguard to militarise and lead the Unions in the face of Fascist attack as was the case in pre-Nazi Germany.

It is very important to therefore understand the difference between proto-fascism and fascism for the Left. Proto-fascism is a distinct state in which the Right Wing has gained enough power and support from a critical mass of the proletariat that it can start to legitimise its ideological narratives. The critical mass giving legitimacy to an abstract idea which might have no logical or empirical grounding is the only basis for Right Wing ideology spreading. A case in point being the hatred of Jews in Nazi Germany or the superiority of the Aryan race. This Nazi narrative would have had no scientific basis and would be based simply on anecdotal, gossip or rumours. These appeal to the baser senses of people to react to a threat and also to make the threat one that might is numerically inferior so that it can be attacked without consequences. This is one of the fundamentals of any fascist or right wing thought. It must make another community or collective the enemy to grow. Where the Left makes an idea and its supporters the class enemy – namely Capitalism and the Bourgeoisie, the Right Wing makes the Jew, the Muslim or the migrant the enemy. It is thus easier for the lumpen to target the physical enemy rather than the ideological one.

Once proto-fascism finds its target, it then clubs its other enemy – the Left – as a supporter of the primary target. This has been done in the past where Jews being part time Bolsheviks was a popular Nazi refrain, in anti-Muslim proto-fascism, Communists are clubbed with Muslims as their protectors. This eliminates two enemies of the Right Wing and the bigger enemy of the Right wing are the Communists because of their common support base and ability to militarise.
The next stage of proto-fascism requires getting greater and greater power and acceptance among the lumpen proletariat and eventually gain political power through any means possible. Once in the seat of power, the objective of the proto-fascists is to remove all legal hurdles and ensure that the Security establishment is firmly under its control. This is important as in the event of a democratic challenge to the authority, the security establishment is necessary to force Governance.

Once the Army is firmly under the control of the Right Wing, there is no further need for a democratic farce and Fascist rule can be implemented. Core industries can then be handed over to the Private sector business houses that can run on slave labour provided by the Govt, imperialist wars and conquest can subsequently follow as well. However, to avoid a revolutionary backlash and longevity during the suspension of democracy, the Fascists will continue the tactic of enforcing Racial or Religious purity, othering another race on and on till it runs out of enemies until finally it reduces the working class to a minority so fractured and miniscule that it cannot revolt and is enslaved. The ultimate aim of fascism is then realised in the re-establishment of a monarchic state or of a dictatorship of the pure blooded.

The New Revolution

Preface

The New Revolution is a series of essays and articles that have been collated to define the nature of a new Democratic People’s Republic of India. This democratic republic is a vision for a Socialist nation of the previously Bourgeois Liberal Democracy of India in a post-Revolutionary framework and covers the economic, social and political economic policies for the nation.
The New Revolution aims to establish a Socialist Government with the ultimate aim of establishing a Communist state in the first stage – which is defined as a state that reaches the stage of abundance in production, State control of the means of production, and the objective of reaching the next stage of human development of all of mankind.
Readers must note that there is no fixed method to enacting a Revolution itself as the material conditions on the ground and the strength of the Workers movement must be carefully judged before the call to armed revolt is given.

Why a Revolution?

History is witness not to the need of revolution itself but rather to its inevitability. It is through the route of revolution that societies globally have enacted the paradigm shifts in their political economy and ensured the progression of modernity. The History of Revolutions hitherto have so far been the histories of the revolts against the ruling classes when they have attempted to change the mode of production, accumulation of profit and capital, and, subsequently, their control of the state.

Most readers will not be familiar with Revolutions as the last major revolutions that have taken place in the world have been pre-WW2 phenomena. While there have been revolutionary movements at the smaller scale in South America, Nepal, and even North Africa, they have all failed to make the paradigm shift out of a Bourgeois Democratic framework and have instead made peace with a change to a more social democratic framework in Nepal, a less imperialist Govt in Venezuela, and a change from sham democracies to Bourgeois Democracies in the Arab Spring countries. One must also not ignore the Revolutions in countries such as Iran that have had anti-imperialist, theocratic revolutions back in the 70s that enabled a transfer of power from pro-imperialist monarchies to theocratic Sharia rule.

So, the big quagmire for the 21st century generation and millennials in general will be Why Revolution? Revolution must be seen in its context of a change of power from a ruling elite back to the People always. It is not the same or analogous to democratic elections; Elections only change the Faces, Revolutions change Systems. It is absolutely vital for a Revolution to take place for Democracy to exist in the first place, it is also a Revolution that is required to transfer the Democratic power from the ruling elites to the People, which is essentially the Dialectic of Political economy and the advance and evolution of a nation. This is essentially what Liberal Govts of today are fighting against as it is in their best interests to not allow the status quo to change.