Statement on Ulster (6/12/71)

[p060] INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL STATEMENT Defeat imperialist conspiracy against Bangla BENGALI resistance to the barbaric Yahya Khan regime and the heritage of im- perialist partition in India has entered a decisive stage with the. intervention of Indian armed forces. It is now only a matter of time before the combined forces of the Mukti Bahini and the Indian army crush the Pakistan troops. in Bangla Desh and occupy Dacca. The International Com- mittee of the Fourth Inter- national was the only organ- ization to support in a principled manner the right of Bangla Desh to secede from Pakistan. It now stands unreserv- edly for the defeat of the hated Pakistan army and the liberation of Bangla Desh—as a prelude to the voluntary and revolutionary unification of India on socialist foundations. — The ICFI supports com- pletely the right of the E Bengali people to solicit the . support of capitalist and workers’ states in their struggle to eliminate Pakis- tani oppression. We critically support the decision of the Indian bour- geois government to give military and economic aid to Bangla Desh. We con- demn the attempt of US imperialism to stop the con- - flict through UN interven- tion and the _ threatened cessation of economic aid to India. US imperialism is deter- mined to utilize the Indo- Pakistan conflict to weaken the Indian economy, as its decision to cut off arms supplies shows. It wants to facilitate the unlimited penetration of US finance capital into India and the installation of a more docile regime in New Delhi. This is part of US im- périalism’s global strategy to contain and push back the _ developing anti - imperialist struggles ot the SE Asian workers and peasants. At the same time the ICFI urge Indian and Bengali socialists to place no con- fidencé whatever in the capacity of the Bengali and Hindu bourgeoisie to carry through any of the tasks of the Indian democratic revo- lution. Behind Mrs Gandhi stand the Hindu fanatics of Jan Sangh and big-business in- terests who wish to annexe E Bengal, and take back the profitable jute and tea in- dustries which they lost after partition. Having co-opted a large proportion of the right-wing Awami League leadership in Calcutta, the Indian bour- geoisie and landlords will— after victory over Pakistan —seek to impose their rule through Awami League col- laborators. At the same time they will try to ruthlessly repress any revolutionary tendéncies around the Mukti Bahini as well as preventing any move- ment towards the revolu- tionary unification of E and W Bengal. That is why up to now the Congress movement has refused to recognize the Republic of Bangla Desh. It also explains its man- oeuvres with the National Awami Party of Maulana Bashani, in order to isolate and destroy those groups who are not prepared to subordinate themselves to the economic and strategic aims of the Hindu ruling class. The ferocious repression of the Naxalités in W Ben- gal—with the intervention of the Indian government on the side of Mrs Bandaran- aike against the Ceylonese rural uprising in April—is convincing proof of the re- actionary naturé of the Indian bourgeoisie. Another and even more fundamental reason for Indian intervention is the deadly fear of the mass up- rising which the Pakistani occupation has_ provoked, and the threat that this up- rising will spill over into W Bengal. The ICFI warn the Ben- gali workers’ and peasants’ revolutionaries. They must organize them- selves separately and main- tain their political indepen- dence from the Awami League bourgeoisie and the Stalinists. These tendencies seek to undermine their struggle and place them at _ the mercy of Delhi — in the same way as they previously accepted Rawalpindi rule. Revolutionaries must combine the _ national struggle with the fight for an uncompromising re- division of the land in the interests of the poor peasants, the nationalization of industry and the setting- up of a workers’ and peasants’ government. The workers and peasants will be compelled to struggle against the plans of the Indian bourgeoisie and will need the support of the working class of India and the rest of the world. Determined mobilization and action of the masses