SFI Pamphlet 14th Aug, '07

August 14, 2007

RISE IN DEFENCE OF THE JNUSU!
ISOLATE THE TREACHEROUS ULTRA-LEFT!!

Friends,

The JNU administration has so far refused to revoke the fines imposed upon the President and Joint Secretary of the JNUSU. The last date for registration being over, the fact that the administration has stuck to this patently unjust and outrageous position of imposing fines upon JNUSU office-bearers, proves that the real motive behind the punitive actions taken on the apparent basis of the 19th February incident, was to weaken and browbeat the JNU student movement and its spearhead, the JNUSU.

The JNUSU President and Joint Secretary have taken a principled position of not paying the fines, imposed upon them on the grounds that they were “unable to control the situation” on 19th February. It is highly unfortunate that the General Secretary of the JNUSU has got his fine waived by striking a deal with the administration and submitting an individual appeal expressing regret over the 19th February incident. The JNUSU Council and the UGBM having collectively expressed regret in the last semester, there was absolutely no basis for any of the JNUSU office-bearers submitting regret letters on an individual basis. Neither was this a part of the agreement between the JNUSU and the JNU administration. It is clear that by breaking ranks with the other office-bearers, the General Secretary of the JNUSU has become a party to the nefarious design of the JNU administration to politically victimize the JNUSU President and Joint Secretary. This is yet another instance of a sordid betrayal of the JNU student movement by the ultra-Left.

From glorifying the gherao of the Registrar after 19th February to the abject surrender before the administration by the General Secretary of the JNUSU and the activists of AISA and DSU, who paid their fines yesterday, the ultra-Left has traversed the entire cycle: from an act of sheer adventurism to an unprincipled and pathetic submission before the authorities. This does not surprise the SFI, since all this is typical of the ultra-Left. It fits so well Lenin’s description of the Left-deviation in the Communist movement: “The petty bourgeois ‘driven to frenzy’ by the horrors of capitalism [violation of minimum wages in JNU in the present case] is a social phenomenon which, like anarchism, is characteristic of all capitalist countries. The instability of such revolutionism [the gherao of 19th February], its barrenness [glorifying the gherao initially and denying it later], its liability to become swiftly transformed into submission [JNUSU General Secretary submitting an individual apology letter to the administration and AISA and DSU activists eventually paying fines], apathy, fantasy, and even a ‘frenzied’ infatuation with one or another bourgeois ‘fad’ [leveling false accusations against the SFI and the CPI (M) and blaming them for everything] — all this is a matter of common knowledge.” (Excerpt from Leftwing Communism, An Infantile Disorder).

The cynical attempts by the AISA and DSU to justify their crass surrender before the administration and payment of fines in their pamphlets yesterday also fits well Lenin’s description of “Leftwing Childishness”: “There could not be better confirmation, in political literature [AISA and DSU pamphlets issued yesterday], of the utter naïveté of the defence of petty-bourgeois sloppiness [paying the fines after calling them ‘unjust’] that is sometimes concealed by “Left” slogans [DSU pamphlet had the heading ‘Two Steps Forward, One Step Back’].” Writing on compromises, Lenin had written: “There are compromises and compromises. One must be able to analyze the situation and the concrete conditions of each compromise, or of each variety of compromise. One must learn to distinguish between a man who gave the bandits money and firearms in order to lessen the damage they can do [JNUSU and UGBM expressing regret on the 19th February incident] and facilitate their capture and execution, and a man who gives bandits money and firearms in order to share in the loot [JNUSU General Secretary submitting regret letter to the administration and AISA/DSU paying fines in order to fix the JNUSU President and Joint Secretary]…to reject compromises ‘on principle’ [like AISA and DSU], to reject the admissibility of compromises in general, no matter of what kind, is childishness, which it is difficult even to take seriously. A political leader who desires to be useful to the revolutionary proletariat must know how to single out concrete cases when such compromises are inadmissible, when they are an expression of opportunism and treachery, and direct all the force of criticism, the full edge of merciless exposure and relentless war, against those concrete compromises [the present surrender by the ultra-Left]…that is really tantamount to the worst kind of opportunism, treachery and betrayal.” (Excerpt from Leftwing Communism, An Infantile Disorder) In keeping with this understanding, the SFI hereby declares an ideological-political war against this opportunism, treachery and betrayal by the AISA and DSU.

AISA and DSU, through their actions have once again proved that ‘Left’ and rightwing deviations are two sides of the same coin. Writing in 1937 Comrade Mao Tse Tung had said: “We are opposed to die-hards in the revolutionary ranks whose thinking fails to advance with changing objective circumstances and has manifested itself historically as Right opportunism. These people fail to see that the struggle of opposites has already pushed the objective process forward while their knowledge has stopped at the old stage. [AISA and DSU have failed to realize that the valiant agitation fought under the JNUSU leadership has changed the objective situation] This is characteristic of the thinking of all die-hards. Their thinking is divorced from social practice and they cannot march ahead to guide the chariot of society, they simply trail behind, grumbling that it goes too fast and trying to drag it back or turn it in the opposite direction. [By submitting regret letters, paying fines and surrendering before the administration] We are also opposed to ‘Left’ phrase mongering. The thinking of ‘Leftists’ outstrips a given stage of development of the objective process; some regard their fantasies as truth, while others strain to realize in the present an ideal, which can only be realized in the future. They alienate themselves from the current practice of the majority of the people and from the realities of the day, and show themselves adventurist in their actions [the gherao of 19th February].” (Excerpts from On Practice)

The surrender and betrayal by the ultra-Left should not, however, be allowed to weaken the JNU student movement. SFI calls upon the JNUSU to launch an immediate agitation against the JNU administration demanding the revocation of fines imposed upon the JNUSU President and Joint Secretary and implementation of the agreement signed with the administration, involving enhancement of MCM scholarship, UGC fellowship and other demands. SFI calls upon the student community to rally behind the JNUSU to defend its prestige and sanctity and successful implementation of the agreement between the JNUSU and the JNU administration, which the latter is trying to violate.

Sd/- Roshan Kishore, President , SFI-JNU; Rajiv Kr Ranjan, Secretary, SFI-JNU.