TANIT

by Jamil Iqbal

The partition of India in 1947 cut through the living body of whole communities, leading to untold death and misery. This was all part of the tried and tested method of ‘divide and rule’ and behind it lay the interests of privileged ruling elites, not those of the poor masses.

“Leave India to God. If that is too much, then leave her to anarchy.” – Gandhi, May 1942

After World War II the British imperialists were in a hurry to leave India. The Partition of British India in 1947, which created the two independent states of India and Pakistan, was followed by one of the cruellest and bloodiest migrations and “ethnic cleansings” in history. The religious fury and violence that it unleashed caused the deaths of some two million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. An estimated 12 to 15 million people were forcibly transferred between the two countries. At least 75,000 women were raped.

Pakistan was made up of two regions: West Pakistan on the Indus River plain, and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), more than 1,100 miles apart. Important parts of what was once considered India were now part of other nations. The Indus River, after which the subcontinent is named, became part of Pakistan after the partition. (more…)

by Jamil Iqbal

In this first article Jamil Iqbal outlines Marx’s analysis of how British imperialism, by introducing capitalist methods, broke down the old Asiatic mode of production and with it the old type of social structures. The British capitalists did this simply to facilitate the exploitation of Indian resources and labour, but by so doing also prepared the ground for the modern struggle against British imperialism. (more…)

Why our goal is not the Soviet Union

1.      The first successful workers revolution in the history of mankind, very soon found itself turned into a bureaucratic dictatorship of a single party and all in the name of the working class. Lenin’s dictatorship of the proletariat became the party’s bureaucratic dictatorship over the proletariat. The political supremacy of the working class, expressed through the Soviets, was turned into the political supremacy of the party over the class. Under Stalin and within a couple of decades, most of the leadership of the Bolsheviks who took power in 1917 were exterminated. Hundreds of thousands, party members, other workers’ parties’ members and non-party activists, ended up in exile, in prison and in front of the firing squad. Stalin and the bureaucratic machinery of the party suppressed all democratic procedures within the party and society. Stalin, as the personalization of the bureaucracy, put his stamp on every aspect of society; even in the field of artistic production, those artists not conforming to ‘socialist realism’ as decreed by him in 1933 either perished or escaped to the west. (more…)

Toward a History of the Internationals (TAHI !)

There are two main strands to our tradition: theory, which Marx first began to develop in the 1840s; and practice, which Marx and Engels most decisively wove together firstly as activists in the democratic revolutions of 1848. From Marx’s early engagement with philosophy, especially Hegel and then the early socialist movements and political economy he developed his method and concepts in order to arm the oppressed in their struggles for a better society. It is impossible to understand the tradition of revolutionary Marxism at every level without appreciating the inextricable connection between theory and practice.

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What traditions do we base ourselves on?

The first section is a fairly personal introduction for an internal discussion to enable us to come to come to some conclusions before writing something for a public website, which will need to be massively condensed. I apologise for the British bias. With your help it might also be developed into an internal document. Please feel free to add subheads etc!

The second section ( TAHI !) could be the beginning of a longer document on the Internationals onto which some of the first discussion could be added later, along with a yet to be written section on the CI. Please feel free to edit and expand.

Of the many important questions, which confront us, this is probably the most influential. The only justification for starting anew is that a break with the old is necessary. But that which is carried forward is likely to have a decisive role, positively or negatively, on the new.

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