Only the rule of the workers and peasants can ensure peace, prosperity and progress!

A grand public meeting was organised by the Communist Ghadar Party of India on Sunday, November 4, 2007, in the Maharashtra High School Maidan, on Currey Road in Mumbai to mark the 90th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution..

This celebration was part of the year long program initiated by the Center Committee of the CGPI in November 2006 to mark the 90th year of the Great October Socialist Revolution. As part of this program, the CGPI conducted a series of schools on the lessons of the great revolutions and on direct democracy. Schools were also conducted on the lessons of the Great Ghadar of 1857. These schools were held in many towns and villages in different parts of India. Mass campaigns as well as public meetings were organised in different regions of the country to take the lessons of these schools to the masses of working people.

“Russi Kranti Se Sabak Lekar Hindostan ko Khushhaal Banaye, Aao Apne Desh mein Mazdoor-Kisaan ka Raj Basaye!” Wherever you looked around the working class districts of Mumbai, you could see this call on posters and banners in the days leading up to the meeting. They were there in front of many mills, railway workshops local trains and stations. Party activists distributed leaflets, as well as held numerous street corner meetings. Through the meetings and the leaflets, they explained why all those who want to rid our land of exploitation and oppression need to study the experience of the revolution and construction of socialism in the Soviet Union, as well as the causes for the destruction of socialism.

On November 3 the comrades took out a procession in Central Mumbai with a beautiful jhanki showing a worker, a peasant, a doctor and a soldier of the Red Army of the Soviet Union. On November 4, comrades proudly waving red flags marched in a procession to the venue of the meeting, followed by a team of lezim players. The venue was decorated with portraits of Lenin as well as the martyrs of our country. There were red flags fluttering all around.

Comrades of other parties and organizations, like the Communist Party of India, Socialist Unity Center of India, All India Workers’ Council, Hind Naujawan Ekta Sabha, Ladaku Garment Kamgar Union, Lok Raj Sangathan, and Kashipur Support Group were present. Hundreds of people attended the meeting, coming from places as far away as Delhi, Nagpur, Pune, Ulhasnagar and Padgha in Thane district.

The speeches by the representatives of the CGPI pointed out that 90 years ago, the workers and peasants of Russia, under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party, wrested power from the bourgeoisie, smashed the state of the exploiters and established their own rule. They ended class exploitation and oppression. They ended the oppression of nations.

The representatives of the CGPI highlighted the glorious achievements of the Soviet Union under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party, during a whole period beginning with the triumph of the October Revolution, and ending with the passing away of Comrade JV Stalin. They pointed to the decisive role of the Communist Party, both before as well as after the revolution. They then went on to explain the factors that led first to the degeneration of socialism, and then to its final collapse.

The speakers pointed out that in India, the state apparatus established by British colonialism to plunder and oppress the Indian people, was retained by the big capitalists and big landlords who came to power in 1947. All the problems facing India’s workers and peasants stem from the fact that it is the big bourgeoisie which is ruling the country, and the capitalist system is flourishing.

Communists have to prepare the workers and peasants for revolution, by exposing the system of parliamentary democracy, by exposing the state as the tool of the ruling classes, and by elaborating the alternative. They have to infuse the people with confidence in themselves by building up their organizations that would be the organs of the future people’s power. Today, the struggle of the working class for democratic renewal, the struggle to replace representative democracy with direct democracy, is the key to establishment of the rule of workers and peasants on Indian soil.

An audio-visual program that was breath-taking in its scope left the audience enthralled. It outlined the anti-imperialist struggle of our ancestors against British rule, the way the British institutionalized treachery, how they established the Congress, how our patriots established the Ghadar Party, about the brave fight waged by Bhagat Singh and his comrades, and finally, the transfer of power from British hands to those of Indian exploiters in 1947. It also showed how the workers and peasants of Russia fought against the exploiters and built up socialism in their land after the revolution and the splendid gains that they made. The audio-visual was interspersed with revolutionary songs and short skits to highlight the message of our martyrs who gave up their life for freedom from exploitation and oppression of persons by persons.

In his speech, the leader of the Hind Naujawan Ekta Sabha exhorted the youth of the country to join in the struggle to overthrow the rule of bourgeoisie and to establish the rule of workers and peasants.

The program ended with a spirited cultural program put up by youth of Ulhasnagar and Delhi.

The entire program was marked by a revolutionary atmosphere, with militant, enthusiastic shouting of slogans by the young comrades hailing the October revolution and declaring their intention to bring about the rule of workers and peasants on Indian soil.

Workers and peasants, women and youth are yearning for revolution. What is stopping them is the fact that they are not organised to carry out the revolution and come to power. Instead they have been disorganised, divided and depoliticised by the bourgeoisie and its political parties. The challenge which our party has taken up is to politicise the workers and peasants, and prepare them to become the rulers.