West Bengal Paralyzed by Strike

West Bengal is a interesting study in Left pathology. The ruling CPI is pushing hard for free trade zones and foreign investment in heavy industry to produce machinery, cars, consumer goods – you name it. State police have already massacred those protesting against the land grabs required for massive factories at Nandigram (where 34 died last year) and continue to kill in pursuit of government policy. Six activists died last week, killed by police. Huge numbers of Bengalis are now seething with rage against the authorities.

Presumably the state government believes that revolution must occur through the industrial proletariat, a sadly impoverished and primitive aspect of Marxism that harks back to the nineteenth century.

Now, left activists, human rights campaigners, peasant groups and international solidarity networks are all estranged from the CPI and the “left” that it represents. Hopefully, this won’t last forever, but it will persist unless the dinosaurs in Kolkata lose their ideological blinkers.

India’s West Bengal state was paralysed on Wednesday by a strike protesting against the police killing of five demonstrators who took part in an anti-unemployment rally, officials said.

The day-long strike, called by a member of West Bengal’s ruling Marxist coalition, was the latest challenge to the government of the impoverished state, which has been rocked by violent protests since early 2007.

Demonstrators in state capital Kolkata blocked roads and appealed to people to support the shutdown, shouting: “Make the strike successful. Protest against the communists’ misrule.”

The five demonstrators killed Tuesday in northern Dinhata town, 600 kilometres (372 miles) from Kolkata, were all activists of the Forward Bloc, a minority partner in the state’s nine-party ruling coalition, police said.

Posted by Szamko
Just tries to tell the truth.

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