What has been proved beyond doubt is that you can not depend on these capitalist political parties even for bringing in good capitalism. For that too you have to look up to the Communist party.
It was the late sixties and early seventies. The name Tata was never heard mentioned alone. It was always Tata-Birla and it sounded like tata bye bye. Many like me thought that it was a single company. It was only when we grew up that we learned that it was not so.
Tata-Birla was not just a big company but a dangerous demon out there exploiting the poor impoverished working class, ripping them up, drinking their blood and growing bigger and bigger like a rakshasa. The hate word then and now is the same in Malayalam… ‘ kuthaka’, which can roughly be translated as ‘monopoly’ in English. Dictionaries might say it is the right meaning but it never was a good translation. This is because monopoly sounds so sweet like chocolate and lacks the punch of kuthaka. Slogan shouting workers of the Communist and socialist parties in rallies, were demonstrating their anger against the exploitation of the working class by the kuthakaas. Tata-Birla were the kuthaka. ‘Death to Tata Birla’…they used to shout with their fists clinched, faces frowned and fire in their eyes. Monopoly is such a sweet epithet; kuthaka is like a thunder, its lightning piercing down the heart of the exploiters.
Now we have the exploiters i.e., kuthakas, in abundance but in those days there was none other than this Tata Birla. Of course the Congress party was there, another exploiter no doubt. But it was different from the Tata Birla in some curious way. Only difference we could see was that there were a few men in the villages to speak and shout for the Congress monopolists but not a soul was there to talk for the poor Tata Birla. But definitely the Tata Birla and Congress belonged to the same exploiter capitalist class. One helping the other, down from the days of Mahathma Gandhi. It was with the help of the ruling monopolists that the economic monopolists were growing and only the Communists were capable of resisting them.
Though there were several newspapers in Kerala, only the Communist Party’s paper used to enlighten the people about the exploits of the cruel monopolies. Bourgeoisie papers kept mum. In those times too, our parliament had their sessions according to the weather, one session when it rained, another when it was bitterly cold, yet another in the scorching summer. Why monsoon session, why winter session? Then or now nobody seemed to have enough political wisdom to tell us what connected parliament with weather. May be it was so envisaged in the constitution. Queer are the ways of these noble statesmen. Every time the parliament met our representatives invariably asked one question. How much has Tata Birla’s assets grown in the mean time the parliament members were serving the poor in the far off constituencies? Ministers used to give the figures which used to shock the opposition benches in the house. Ten crores, fifty crores, hundred crores…oh what terrible exploitation!!
These figures were published in the left party’s newspapers only. And those answers were to the questions only. Nothing was mentioned as to how much capital was invested by the Birlas in a place calledMavoorin the north of Kerala to start a factory that produced something called rayon which in turn was used to make shirts and sarees for the rich bourgeoisie the world over. It was said that the first ever Communist government that came to power through elections anywhere in the world was in Kerala and its venerable leader cum ideologue had gone out and invited the Birlas to come to Mavoor, start this factory and exploit the poor workers here so that they can earn a living. Loads and loads of bamboo were cut down from the forests of Kerala to be given to the Birla’s factory at throw away prices. This was done with the noble intention of industrializing the poor state. But nobody ever mentioned how much of the kuthakaa’s assets had grown due to the help given by the Communist government in Kerala.
Times have changed. They have been trying to bring in capitalists from all over the world to establish industries in West Bengal. Not many came from outside India, but the Tatas volunteered to go to the far off Communist village of Singur to produce small cars priced low enough for the exploited working class to buy. The government had to evacuate about 13000 farmers in those villages to make way for the working class cars. Marx has said that an agriculturist society will have to give way for the industrialist society. But, all knew that exploiters like Mamata will have no ‘mamatha’ for the working class and they have driven the Tatas away so that the toiling millions don’t drive cars.
What has been proved beyond doubt is that these capitalist parties can not be depended upon even for bringing in good capitalism. For that too you have to look up on the Communist party. The heartless action of the Mamatha party has shocked the capitalists the world over. We call upon them to organize themselves, mind you – you have only dollars to lose and have a world to gain.
Long live the revolution !!
