Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism 226 April/May 2012
The Communist Party of India (Maoist) is an underground guerilla party in India, well-known for its fight for the rights of tribes in the forest belt around central India, especially in the states of Chattisgharh, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharastra and West Bengal. Their objective is the revolutionary overthrow of the Indian government. They are often referred to as Naxalites in reference to the Naxalbari insurrection conducted by radical Maoists in West Bengal in 1967. In 2006, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh branded the CPI (M) ‘the single biggest internal security challenge ever faced’ by the country. In 2009 the party became a proscribed organisation.
Condemn arrests and torture of Maoist activists in India
In February 2012, the police arrested activists of our Party, including senior cadre from Kolkata and Mumbai. On the specific intelligence provided by the murderous APSIB, joint forces of police and STF of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal raided the shelters of our comrades in Kolkata and Mumbai suburbs and arrested at least nine comrades including two women comrades. Comrades Sadanala Ramakrishna, Deepak Kumar Pargania, Sukumar Mandal, Bapi Mudi and Sambhu Charan were arrested from Kolkata while Comrades Dinesh Wankhede, Aasimkumar Bhattacharya, Suman Gawde and Paru Patel were picked up from Thane in Maharashtra. Comrade Sadanala Ramakrishna is 62 and has suffered from serious health problems for many years. A revolutionary for more than four decades, Comrade Ramakrishna sacrificed his bright life for the cause of liberation of the downtrodden. Both the two women comrades arrested have been undergoing medical treatment for some time.
The police forces, known for the worst kind of cruelty, have been torturing these comrades mentally and physically while in custody. They have foisted several false cases against these comrades to ensure they languish behind the bars forever.
These arrests are part of Operation Green Hunt (OGH ie the ‘War on the People’) underway since 2009. The comprador ruling classes, in connivance with their imperialist masters, particularly with the US imperialists, have unleashed this brutal war of suppression in the poorest parts of India so that their neoliberal policies of plunder of resources can be unhindered. They are particularly targeting the revolutionary leadership and eliminating it. As the Pentagon itself claimed recently, the US Special Forces are not only actively involved, but also assisting their Indian counterparts on the ground in the counter-insurgency operations. This fact also shows us that the US has been sponsoring the ongoing OGH, making values such as freedom, independence, and the sovereignty of our country a joke. The exploiting rulers of our country are day-dreaming if they think this movement can be suppressed by wiping out its leadership.
The revolutionary movement cannot be crushed by arrests and murders. The bars of the dungeons cannot prevent revolutionary ideas from spreading among the masses. The CC of CPI (Maoist) strongly condemns these arrests and inhumane torture being inflicted on our comrades. We demand their immediate and unconditional release, as well as that of all of the political prisoners languishing in various jails in all corners of our land. We also demand the dropping of the false cases foisted against these comrades.
Statement from the Communist Party of India (Maoist) Central Committee, 2 March
A beginner’s guide to surviving prison
I read with interest your FRFI 225 about the legal repercussions for those involved in the August unrest. Taking my own history into consideration, I am not in a position to preach about such things. I do however think they were naïve to expect to be judged purely on the basis of individual actions rather than in the overall context of those actions. The harsh sentences are clearly intended as a deterrent to others. ‘They hate whom they fear’, as the Roman poet Quintus Ennius put it. I am glad that FRFI is educating people about this reality.
To those imprisoned, either awaiting trial or convicted, if this is your first time inside, I know it can initially be a shocking experience. The first few days are the most overwhelming. As the weeks and months pass, you will get used to it. ‘No one who has not sat in prison knows what the state is like’, said Leon Tolstoy. Although at first it may seem that you have been stripped of everything that defined your identity, remember that you still have responsibilities to yourself, your family and your ideals. You will need to develop a confident and cautious mentality, without pretending to be something you are not. But equally, you do not need to reveal everything about yourself, or try to control a situation through unnecessary aggression – it just attracts trouble. Avoid active drug users and dealers – a lot of violence and theft is obviously connected to drugs. Choose your associates wisely. You will undoubtedly meet many selfish arseholes in prison, but you will also find some genuinely solid and interesting characters. Prison can give you a more complete understanding of how society functions. If you have a release date, focus on the bigger picture. Try to spend your time productively – use the library, education department and gym (if possible). Develop an exercise routine. These things will help keep you in a positive mindset. ‘It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little. Do what you can!’ (Sydney Smith).
MA Cooper
A5920AL, HMP Whitemoor
Activists prevent council house sell-off
On 13 February, a group of activists prevented the Labour-run Lewisham Council in southeast London from auctioning off five council properties and are in the process of renovating them so that local homeless families can move in. On 3 March the first family – Azad Khan and Nashima Begum and their two young children moved into a three-bedroom house in New Cross, after being on the housing list for four years.
Lewisham has 17,000 people on its housing waiting list, with 350 families living in hostels and 1,000 in temporary accommodation. Yet it has 2,000 empty residential properties. Five were recently earmarked for a bargain-basement auction, with a starting price of £140,000.
So Lewisham People Before Profit went along to the Open Day and then refused to leave. Since then, they’ve been painting and decorating, checking the safety of gas and electricity supplies and in some cases installing new bathrooms and kitchens, with support from the local community. The council argues that the houses were never ‘purpose-built’ residential accommodation; that is a lie. I visited the house at Angus Street and while it was most recently used as a day nursery, it’s clearly a family house, with a garden, in a row of terraced houses. Ray Woolford, housing adviser to the campaign, says it cost just £1,000 to renovate the house – compared to the £40,000 a year spent to house each homeless family in inadequate and cramped temporary accommodation.
The organisation hopes the council will agree tenancies for the houses. Azad Khan told Lewisham New Shopper: ‘I am aware of the risk and that we do not have a tenancy agreement, but it is a risk worth taking as this is exactly what we need. I’m hopeful the council won’t chuck me out on the street with my young children.’ For more information about how you can support the occupation, visit http://www.peoplebeforeprofit. org.uk/lewisham/lewisham-pbp-news/99-defend-council-housing
While homeless soars, there are 5,000 residential council properties lying empty in London alone. It’s time for more people to follow the Lewisham lead.
Cat Wiener
South London
Withholding of publications – FRFI
Thank you for your letter dated 9 December 2011. I apologise for the delay in responding to you but it has taken some time to conclude my enquiries into this matter.
I am sorry that there have been problems with prisoners receiving your publication and confirm that there appears to have been a misunderstanding by staff which led to your publication either being withheld or returned to you. Offenders at HMP Manchester are encouraged to raise a newspaper order form, which is then forwarded to our approved supplier for processing. When it occurs that a publication is requested which is not ordinarily stocked at newsagents then this will be allowed to be sent direct from the publishers to the Correspondence Department and all staff have now been made aware of this.
In your letter you have stated that A6060AL Mr Nevers, a current offender, had a copy of your publication stopped. I can confirm that this was indeed the case and it was stopped because it had not been sent via the official supplier. I can only apologise for this oversight and confirm that steps are being taken to reunite Mr Nevers with his newspaper.
In conclusion, I can confirm that there should be no further interference with your publication.
RW Vince, Governor
HMP Manchester
