ON August 2, 2015, the 68th foundation day rally of the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) at Alibag, which is the district centre of the Raigad district adjoining Mumbai, was a step in the direction of Left unity in Maharashtra. The day started with an enthusiastic rally in which thousands of people participated. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, MP who was the chief guest, PWP general secretary Jayant Patil MLC, CPI(M) central secretariat member Dr Ashok Dhawale, CPI(M) state secretary and Central Committee member Narasayya Adam, CPI state secretary Bhalchandra Kango, CPI(M) Central Committee member Mahendra Singh, state secretariat members Dr Kishore Theckedath, J P Gavit MLA, Mariam Dhawale and Kisan Gujar and CPI state leader Prakash Reddy stood in an open jeep at the head of the rally which coursed through the streets of Alibag for over an hour before reaching the venue of the public meeting near the sea shore.

Earlier on June 30, at the initiative of the CPI(M), a meeting of the eight Left parties in Maharashtra was held at the CPI(M) state committee office Janashakti in Mumbai. It was attended by leaders of the PWP, CPI(M), CPI, Lal Nishan Party, Lal Nishan Party (Leninist), Satyashodhak Communist Party, CPI(ML)–Liberation and SUCI(C). Here it was decided to consolidate Left unity and to make a success of the September 2 all India strike in the state.

BACKGROUND OF

THE PWP

The PWP was founded by Left-leaning Congress leaders on the eve of independence on August 3, 1947. Within three years, at its conference held at Dabhadi in Nashik district, it adopted Marxism as its ideology. That document became known as the Dabhadi thesis. In subsequent years, it played a leading role in the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement along with the Communist Party, the Praja Socialist Party and the Republican Party. During the great drought of 1972-73, it led big struggles of the peasantry that led to police firing and the martyrdom of some peasants at Vairag in Solapur district and Islampur in Sangli district. It fought against the emergency.

In its strong and abiding base in Raigad district it led the struggle of the peasantry against landlordism in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1984, it led a massive peasant struggle in the Uran and Panvel tehsils of Raigad district, demanding a fair deal for peasants whose land had been acquired by the CIDCO. This led to police firing in which five peasants were killed and this led to a statewide uproar. As a result, the then Congress state government had to concede the peasant demand for a fair compensation. In 2000, all the Left and secular parties in Maharashtra led a sustained and successful statewide struggle against the notorious Enron deal. In 2003, the PWP hosted a statewide Left convention of the PWP, CPI(M) and CPI that culminated in a massive rally at Alibag. The chief guest was the then CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya.

The major recent struggle that was led by the PWP in Raigad district, with the active participation of the CPI(M) and other small groups, was the one against the proposed 35,000-acre MahaMumbai SEZ of the Mukesh Ambani-headed Reliance Industries. This SEZ would have uprooted 45 villages in Uran, Panvel and Pen tehsils. The first massive 50,000-strong peasant rally against this SEZ in September 2007 was addressed by Sitaram Yechury. The sustained four-year battle of the peasantry ended in a historic victory, with the state government being forced to scrap the MahaMumbai SEZ in February 2011.

It needs to be mentioned that in recent years there were some unfortunate political deviations by the PWP leadership. But these were corrected in the 2014 state assembly elections, which were fought unitedly by the major Left parties. The PWP now has three MLAs and one MLC in the state assembly. It has won the Raigad zilla parishad and some panchayat samitis and municipal councils in the district. It is in the forefront of the co-operative movement here and is in control of the Raigad District Central Co-Operative Bank and many other institutions which it has run for the last several decades.

IMPRESSIVE

PUBLIC MEETING       

Addressing the impressive district-wide gathering at Alibag, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury greeted the PWP on its anniversary and said that our country has moved very far away from the dreams of the PWP founder in Raigad district Narayan Nago Patil and his close colleague Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. The Modi-led BJP government is unabashedly promoting corporate interests. The gap between the rich and poor is increasing. The government is fudging statistics to show that the economic situation is improving. But the reality is that peasant suicides have increased by 26 percent in the country in the last one year. The BJP had promised to implement the Swaminathan commission recommendations in its election manifesto. But it has refused to do so. Subsidies have been cut and there has been a drop in remunerative prices. FDI is being brought in all sectors. Prices of all essential commodities have risen. The condition of the masses is worsening. Struggles will have to be organised against the pro-rich and anti-people onslaught of the Modi government.

Yechury said that the people will also have to be mobilised against the communal drive, corruption scams and authoritarian functioning of this government. The BJP regime is indulging in the worst kind of vote-bank politics through communal polarisation, using religious sentiments to create disaffection, disunity and unrest. It is destroying the democratic traditions set up in our country. The opposition parties have unitedly prevented the anti-peasant Land Acquisition Bill from being passed in the Rajya Sabha. Many positive changes were made in the earlier 2013 Land Acquisition Act due to our intervention. But this government wants to destroy it. Industrial corridors are being planned and one kilometer of land on either side of these corridors, that is 32 percent of agricultural land will be taken over from the farmers for the corporates. Modi had promised to bring back the black money stashed in banks abroad and deposit 15 lakh rupees in every citizen’s bank account. The prime minister is now totally silent on this issue. Five lakh crore rupees tax exemptions are given to the rich and corporate sector every year. We can develop irrigation facilities and generate employment with this amount. This largesse to the rich should be stopped. There are enough resources in our country for the uplift of all. But the government is more interested in selling our national assets like coal and iron at throwaway prices to the corporates and MNCs. He concluded, “We will have to work together to build an alternative. The capitalist system is bankrupt and can never relieve the masses from their miseries. Socialism is the answer to end this exploitative system. We will campaign to make the all India strike by the trade unions on September 2 a resounding success. Let us raise our voices and take the Red Flag forward for the future of India! All Left forces in India should unitedly struggle to build a new Bharat! This rally is a good beginning in Maharashtra.”

CPI(M) central secretariat member Dr Ashok Dhawale in his greetings reminded the gathering of the glorious heritage of Raigad district that is named after Raigad fort, which was the capital of Chhatrapati Shivaji. The chief of Shivaji’s navy Kanhoji Angre and the great anti-imperialist freedom fighter Vasudev Balwant Phadke also hailed from Raigad district. The Chaudar Lake satyagraha against the pernicious caste system and for social justice led by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, with Comrade R B More as its main organiser – and the subsequent public burning of the thoroughly reactionary text Manusmriti by Dr Ambedkar – also took place in 1927 at Mahad in this district. He congratulated the PWP for leading the historic victorious struggle of the peasantry in Raigad district against Reliance Industries’ proposed MahaMumbai SEZ. Narendra Modi’s promise of ‘achhe din’ has only benefited the corporates. Peasant suicides in Maharashtra have increased by 40 percent in the last one year. The killer of Mahatma Gandhi, Nathuram Godse is being glorified as a ‘martyr’ and ‘patriot’ by the RSS-BJP leaders. Within a year of the formation of the BJP government, stinking corruption scandals are breaking out. He called upon the gathering to mobilise thousands of workers and peasants on September 2. Reiterating the importance of Left unity, he ended his speech with the call to build a political alternative through struggles.

PWP general secretary Jayant Patil pledged that the PWP which has fought long and hard in the interests of the peasantry and the working people, would redouble its efforts in that direction in the future. It would also further work to improve its contribution to the co-operative movement, which in the rest of the state has been riddled by corruption. He attacked the anti-people policies of the Modi regime and stressed Left unity to defeat them. CPI state secretary Bhalchandra Kango criticised the BJP-led regimes at the centre and the state and called for united Left struggles to combat them. The meeting was also addressed by PWP leaders Meenakshi Patil ex-MLA, Vivek Patil ex-MLA and Dhairyasheel Patil MLA.

PWP leaders felicitated Sitaram Yechury on his election as general secretary of the CPI(M). Jayant Patil took the Left leaders for a visit to the Raigad District Central Co-operative Bank in Alibag. A film made by NABARD on the achievements of the bank was shown during this visit. 2000 copies of the booklet on “One Year of the Modi Regime” published by the CPI(M) Maharashtra state committee for the August campaign, were sold in the rally.