Statement of Mazdoor Ekta Committee (MEC), March 20, 2023
(Translation of Hindi statement)
On the 92nd martyrdom anniversary of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev:
The dream of the martyrs has to be fulfilled to make India free from exploitation and oppression!
Statement of Mazdoor Ekta Committee (MEC), March 20, 2023
On March 23, 1931, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were hanged by the British rulers. They were labelled as “terrorists”. They and countless other revolutionaries sacrificed their lives to overthrow the British rule and free their people from slavery and all forms of exploitation and oppression. The British rulers wanted to destroy their thoughts and actions by hanging them. But the British rulers did not succeed in their objective. Even today, the thought and death-defying courage of Shaheed Bhagat Singh and his companions inspires the workers, farmers, women and youth of our country to fight against exploitation and oppression.
Shaheed Bhagat Singh and his comrades had given a call to build such an India, in which every worker would be free from exploitation and oppression. Where every worker would get the fruits of his labour. Where the farmers who provide food to the country will not be forced to commit suicide. Where the future of the youth will not be in darkness. Where our women, the mothers of the new generation, could move about without fear. Where people would not be divided in the name of religion and caste and where those who create the country’s wealth would themselves be the owners of the country. Our ruling capitalist class and its political parties claim that we achieved independence in 1947. But the reality is that today even after 76 years, the workers and farmers of the country are victims of exploitation and oppression. Today, the youth who have a job, even after toiling for 12-16 hours every day, do not get a living wage. There is no guarantee that tomorrow they will have a job or not. Even today the largest number of people are victims of unemployment. Starvation, malnutrition, illiteracy remain even today. Thousands of deaths occur every day due to curable diseases.
Harassment in the name of caste or religion and increasing violence on women are everyday occurrences. The country is not free from communal massacres and state terror organized by the state.
What do we have to do today to make the dreams of the martyrs come true? To get answers to these questions, we have to understand the history of the freedom struggle of the country.
In the struggle to end the British rule, there was a clash between two views on what the new India would be like. There was a point of view of the working class, toiling farmers and revolutionaries. The second point of view was of the big capitalists and big landlords.
The workers, peasants and revolutionaries of our country were inspired by the heroic declarations and actions from the great Ghadar of 1857 to the Hindustan Ghadar Party. They were inspired by the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia and the establishment of workers’ rule there. They were organizing workers, farmers, women and youth for revolutionary changes in the society. They believed that as long as the institutions of the state established by the British to suppress the people of the country remain intact, we will not be able to achieve real freedom. The revolutionaries categorically declared that “our struggle will continue as long as a handful of people, indigenous or foreign or a combination of both, continue to exploit the labour and resources of our people. No one can divert us from this path.” They called for a struggle for the complete overthrow of the British state and the creation of a new state, in which there would be no exploitation of man by man and the state would ensure happiness, security and prosperity for all.
The British rulers brutally suppressed the revolutionaries. At the same time, land and industrial licenses were awarded to those loyal to the British. The development of the capitalist class and landlords was promoted. With the aim of dissuading the workers and peasants from taking the path of revolution, the British rulers formed the Indian National Congress party as the representative of the richest and most influential sections of the Indian capitalists and landlords. Capitalist industrial houses and big landlords were included within the British system, while the majority of the working people were kept out. These loyalists of the British government had fully cooperated with the British in attacking the revolutionaries and hanging them.
In 1947, the British rulers, after making separate agreements with the Congress Party and the Muslim League, partitioned the country on communal lines and transferred power to the class nurtured by them. All the institutions of the British colonial rule and the entire system of oppression and plunder were retained.
This was a big fraud on the working people of our country. The aim of our revolutionary patriots to completely break away from the British colonial heritage through the revolutionary struggle was defeated.
The same loyalists of the British rule who cooperated with the British in getting thousands of revolutionaries hanged, are ruling the country. They are the ones who are maintaining the institutions of the British rule, making them more efficient. This truth is hidden from the workers, farmers, women and youth. Every effort is made to forget the real purpose of the struggle of Shaheed Bhagat Singh and countless revolutionaries.
The state power of the capitalist class has taken the place of the British rule. The big monopoly capitalist houses – Tatas, Birlas, Ambanis, Adanis, etc. – who lead the capitalist class, decide the agenda of the country. Today those who oppose the agenda of the capitalists are crushed with equal and more brutality with which the British government used to torture and crush those who challenged them. They are locked up in jail indefinitely under harsh laws like the UAPA.
Even today, 76 years later, the exploitation and plunder of the labour and resources of our people by domestic and foreign capitalists continues unabated. The capitalist rulers, with the intention of achieving their own imperialist designs, are selling off the precious assets and resources of the country. They are strengthening strategic alliance with US imperialism and other imperialist powers and putting the country in grave danger.
In this country, which is called the “world’s most populous democracy”, elections are held from time to time. The illusion is spread that “the people choose their government”. But in reality, the monopoly capitalist houses invest crores and crores of rupees to form the government of their loyal political party, which would implement their agenda in the best way. Along with this, it will continue to fool people. The working people do not have the power to take any policy decision and make or change laws. We can neither hold our elected representatives accountable nor can we recall them.
Comrades and Friends,
Remembering the martyrdom of Shaheed Bhagat Singh and his comrades will be meaningful only when we move forward on the path shown by them and succeed in building the India they aimed for.
Indian society yearns for profound social change. In place of the existing capitalist economic and political system of exploitation and oppression, we need to establish a new system in which the working class, in alliance with all the oppressed and oppressed, would rule and set the country’s agenda. The workers and toiling people would be able to take all the important decisions of the society. The major means of production would be taken out of the hands of the capitalist class and placed under social control. The goal of the economy would be to satisfy the needs of all working people to the greatest extent possible, and not the greed of the capitalists.
Shaheed Bhagat Singh and countless other revolutionaries gave their lives for this goal. Let us unite to make that dream of our martyrs come true! Let us intensify our struggle against the rule of the capitalists!