CPI (ML) Red Star

We, CPI (ML) Red Star, put on record our deep condolence to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the entire masses of Palestine on the departure of its leader and former Deputy Secretary General of PFLP, Comrade Abu Ahmed Fouad (Major General Daoud Maragha) on 17th January 2024.

Comrade Abu Ahmed Fouad shall be remembered among the revolutionaries and the oppressed masses around the world for his immense revolutionary contributions to the Palestine resistance movement and for his lifelong struggle for the cause. His path of relentless struggle shall also guide the ongoing resisting masses in Palestine for their goal of the complete liberation of Palestine and the destruction of the Zionist state from the Palestine land.

CPI (ML) Red Star extends our condolences and revolutionary greetings to PFLP, all other Palestine resistance forces and the entire masses of Palestine.

Victory to the Palestine Liberation!

International Department

CPI (ML) Red Star

New Delhi

19.01.2025

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The Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Polit Bureau of PFLP mourned its comrade, the great national leader of Palestine, Major General Daoud Maragha “Abu Ahmed Fouad,” the former deputy secretary-general of the Popular Front and one of the most prominent military leaders of the Palestinian revolution, who passed away on Friday (18th January 2025), after a struggle with illness.

The party said in an obituary statement: “Despite his suffering from illness in recent months, Comrade Abu Ahmed Fouad remained present in his heart and mind, following the developments of the Palestinian struggle, preoccupied with following the destructive Zionist war on the Gaza Strip. He believed in the inevitability of the victory of the resistance and saw in the determination of Gaza, its people and fighters, and the bravery of its resistance, evidence of the ability of the new Palestinian generation to create new equations that put the occupation in an existential predicament.”

The Party pledged to the masses of the heroic Palestine people, the free people of our nation and the world, our late comrade, and the blood of our martyrs and heroes across the battlefields to remain loyal to those who paved the path of freedom with their blood.

In the presence of leaders and representatives of the Palestinian resistance factions, Dr. Samir Al-Rifai, the Palestinian Ambassador to Syria, the leadership, cadres, members and and a large crowd of people from the Palestinian camps, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine buried Major General Abu Ahmed Fouad in the Syrian capital, Damascus.

After the body was buried, Comrade Omar Murad, member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Front and head of the Political Department addressed to the people on behalf of the Party:

Today we bid farewell to a great figure of the revolution and armed struggle, a historic leader who was witnessed by all the battlefields in the heart of Palestine, Jordan, and Lebanon… a genuine political, national, nationalist, and international leader. Today we bid farewell to our comrade, former Deputy General Secretary Major General Abu Ahmed Fouad. In the line-up of Comrades Al-Hakim (Dr. George Habash), Abu Ali Mustafa, Abu Ammar, Abu Jihad, Al-Yassin, Al-Shaqaqi, Haniyeh, Al-Sinwar, and all the martyrs for the course of Palestine National Liberation, Comrade Abu Ahmed Fouad also fully engaged in the revolutionary struggle, relentlessly performed all duties, and fulfilled the trust. He confronted the enemies who pursued him until his last moments.

We, all the remaining
comrades and all the masses in the resistance have sworn to continue the path of the revolution and struggle until achieving the goals and liberating Palestine. We all bid farewell to our leader at a time when our people are celebrating the victory of Gaza and the people of Gaza, and the guns of the revolutionaries are drawn, declaring the defeat of the fascist Zionist enemy that accepted the complete withdrawal from Gaza and the liberation of the prisoners, the eagles of freedom, despite the war of extermination, ethnic cleansing and mass destruction.

We also salute to the heroes of Operation Flood of Al-Aqsa and all the fighters and to all the resistance forces and to all the countries that stood with our people and our people in Gaza, supporting our struggle.

Abu Ahmed, revolutionary leader, we bid you farewell today with more determination and resolve to work to achieve Palestinian national unity within the framework of the Palestine Liberation Organization based on the program of resistance and liberation.

Glory to the martyrs, freedom to the prisoners, victory to our great people!

(Compiled from the statements of PFLP Military Wing Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades and Polit Bureau of PBLP, Issued by PFLP International Media Office in Beirut, Lebanon)

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The extremely fragile nature of the truce – comprising both ceasefire and hostage release – between Israel and Hamas announced by mediator Qatar on 15 January 2025 has already exposed as US-backed Netanyahu regime continued its genocidal airstrikes killing at least 75 Palestinians and injuring around 230 in Gaza on 15 January night itself. Meanwhile, far-right and terrorist sections of the Zionist regime are reportedly opposing the ceasefire deal leading to a delay in Israeli cabinet’s approval of it.

After all, Biden, as outgoing president, has already lost his control over the US military machine. And the world clearly knows that Israel is primarily a ‘military outpost’ of the US and that the reins of the Netanyahu regime including the massive supply of weapons to Israel and horrific war-crimes committed on Palestinians by it, are all based on the diktats of US. For, it was the US that on 20 November 2024 vetoed and blocked a UN Security Council Resolution through which all members of UNSC (except the Yankees) demanded a permanent cease-fire in Gaza and the release of all Israeli hostages. At that time, the US representative Robert Wood’s sole justification for vetoing the resolution was: “… the proposed language would have sent the wrong message to Hamas.”

Now the facts are obvious. Neofascist, far-right and reactionary Trump, who is to ascend the US throne on 20 January with his motto of “America First”, and “Make America Great Again” (MAGA), has his own imperialist priorities including the approach to ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the Israeli war. It was Trump’s Middle East Envoy who played the decisive role in the present truce. And, as already noted, even ministers of Netanyahu regime are aware of the fact that the present truce is superimposed by Trump on them with its repercussions on Netanyahu’s own political future itself. At the same time, well-meaning people are aware that regarding US imperialist foreign policies and geopolitical strategies, there is no fundamental difference between Republicans and Democrats, and the present Trumpian move on Gaza is only transitory and necessitated by short-term political expediency.

Of course, for the most persecuted and oppressed Palestinians, who are in a “living hell”, even a temporary halt of incessant bombings and massacres will be of great relief. As the first phase of truce will take effect from 19 January, international community can take initiative for channeling the much-needed humanitarian assistane to Palestinians. At the same time, it is upto the Palestinians and Palestinian Liberation forces to move forward, with the firm solidarity and warm support of all anti-imperialist democratic forces the world over, towards the ultimate objective of establishing a secular, democratic Palestine fully liberated from the clutches of imperialism and Zionism. Viewed in this perspective, and since fascist neo-Zionism is the antithesis of a liberated Palestine, the Palestinians and all their Resistance Forces should have a cautious approach to the present truce and they have to take care not to fall into a plausible trap set by imperialist-Zionist axis.

In Solidarity with Palestinian People!

P J James
General Secretary
CPI (ML) Red Star

New Delhi
17 – 01 – 2025

The post As Biden and Trump Fight each other Claiming Credit for Ceasefire, It is upto the Palestinians not to fall into the Trap set by Fascist Yankee-Zionist Axis ! appeared first on CPI(ML) Red Star.

The Indian rupee reached ₹86.63 on 15 January 2025. While official think-tanks and policy-experts justify the rupee’s plunge as an unavoidable correction of overvalued rupee and indispensable for boosting Indian exports and for facilitating export-oriented development, the same was not Modi’s approach when rupee was falling under Manmohan regime. Modi, who was the then Gujarat chief minister, sarcastically interpreted it as a competition between Congress and rupee as, “who will fall lower, that is the competition.” He also said: “It is our country’s misfortune that the rulers in Delhi are neither worried about the country’s defence nor about the falling value of the rupee.” When the rupee depreciated further and reached ₹ 64 against a dollar during August 2013, lambasting the “incompetence” of the Centre for not taking any steps to strengthen the currency against the USD (US dollar), Modi noted: “The rupee has fallen rapidly in the past three months. But the government has not taken any steps in the last three months to strengthen the rupee against the US dollar. If the rupee keeps falling like this, other countries will start taking advantage of India.”

However, when Modi took office as prime minister in 2014, the rupee-dollar exchange rate was ₹58.58 to a dollar, as unlike today, the Manmohan government still had some leverage by which the RBI could intervene in the foreign exchange market to reverse the trend towards depreciation. However, as the rupee continues its plunge reaching 86.63 today, and Modinomics and the entire fascist regime is being exposed as more “incompetent” and several-fold far-right neoliberal than Manmohanomics, the corporate-saffron media is camouflaging the whole issue under its Hindurashtra campaign on the one hand, even as government spokespersons are repeating so called gains associated with rupee depreciation in an “export-led” development scenario.  In this context, some clarifications on the exchange rate policy under Modi regime that leads to the historic plunge of the rupee would be in order.

Even after demolishing the Nehruvian state-led development paradigm including its concomitant controls over exchange rate, India under Manmohanomics was still following a “crawling peg system” that combined aspects of both fixed and flexible exchange rate systems allowing the RBI to set a predetermined range of rates within which the rupee can fluctuate. This also created a situation where the government could gradually adjust the currency value over time. It also combined methods of currency appreciation or depreciation, though different from devaluation under the fixed exchange rate system that prevailed under the Nehruvian model.  Thus, it was the ‘crawling peg’ system that gave some manoeuvrability to Manmohan government for apparently reversing the trend towards depreciation in 2013, which also enabled it again to bring back the exchange to ₹58.58 = $1 in 2014, on the eve of Modi’s ascendance to power.  However, this option is not available to Modi regime now on account of total surrendering of its grip over Indian rupee coupled with its extreme reliance on USD.

With the ascendance of far-right neofascist Modi government in 2014, as manifested in such moves as dissolution of the six-and-a-half decade old Planning Commission and as part of liberalising and deregulating the economy together with State’s merger with corporate capital, it unleashed a regime of fully flexible or floating exchange rate system in which the RBI became a mere spectator amid volatile or fluctuating exchange rate.  This allowed US-based currency speculators and manipulators (including their Indian junior partners like Adani and Ambani) to have a field day while India became totally exposed to international financial and trade shocks. It aggravated pressures on rupee value thereby intensifying crises in the foreign market-oriented productive sectors with unpredictable repercussions. In brief, the present plunge of the rupee in relation to dollar and its after-effects should be seen in the context of Modi government’s altogether abandoning of crawling peg system which, in spite of its limitations, had given Manmohan government some manoeuvrability to periodically adjust the exchange rate avoiding its large and sudden decline contrary to the current situation under Modi regime.

In this context, it is very pertinent on the part of all working and oppressed peoples of the world to have a grasp on how US-led postwar neocolonialism is maintained by pegging the currencies of dependent neocolonial Afro-Asian-Latin American countries to the USD which is kept as the international reserve currency. While imperialist powers from EU, China and Russia have already broken this shackle, India and other neocolonial countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America are still manacled by the dollar tyranny superimposed on them when Second World War was coming to a close. And, though groupings like BRICS have already started earnest discussions for a de-dollarisation – that entails significant reduction in the use of USD in global trade and finance, an example of which is oil trade where non-USD currencies are increasingly used now – and creation of an alternative global monetary system to circumvent the dollar hegemony, quite often, the Modi regime is acting as a blackleg within.

As long as neocolonial countries are relying on USD as a reserve currency, medium of exchange for international transactions and a unit of account, as proved since the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement when USD ascended to the position of primary reserve currency of the world, US Department of Treasury has been capable to use it as a mighty economic weapon against dependent countries in manifold ways. Among them, forced devaluation/depreciation of the currencies of dependent countries like India against USD has been the most effective weapon frequently used by US imperialism to carry forward its ruthless plunder and exploitation of neocolonial countries. The immediate impact of superimposing devaluation/depreciation on a country is a huge neocolonial drain of the wealth of the country which is subjected to it.

For instance, even during the quarter century of international Keynesianism that yielded a so called ‘golden age for capitalism’ led by State intervention and dominance of public sector at a global level and when fixed exchange rate system was the norm, US imperialism was successful in superimposing even huge one-shot devaluations upon dependent neocolonial countries by pressurising the regimes there. A horrific instance was the 57.5 percent devaluation of the Indian rupee in 1966 that resulted in an on-the-spot appreciation of the value of USD from ₹ 4.75 to ₹ 7.50. The decision was taken based on the 1965 Report of the Bell Mission appointed by World Bank as per US diktat. It was done for facilitating unfettered penetration of US capital into India by pushing down the prices of India’s resources and labour power (that is, when the exchange of value of Indian rupee goes down, less amount of USD is required for getting more goods and resources from India). When Ashok Mehta, the then Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission claimed that “devaluation will open Indian economy so that the womb of mother India will be impregnated by the dynamic foreign capital”, the then parliamentary opposition characterised it as “rape of India”.

The next important one-shot devaluation of the rupee took place in 1991 in the context of Rao-Manmohan government’s embrace of neoliberal globalisation and complete abandonment of Nehruvian state-led development paradigm. This time too, the pressure for devaluation came from Fund-Bank Combine (IMF and World Bank) and US neoliberal centres that advocated a 22 percent devaluation of the rupee along with a whole set of macro and micro-economic structural and sectoral adjustment programs. This sky-rocketed the profits of currency speculators by facilitating cross-border hot-money flows, further intensifying the economic drain out of India, by pushing down the prices of India’s labour and resources. Of course, as part of liberalisation and globalisation of India’s external sector, the fixed exchange rate system also gave way to a ‘crawling peg’ system, giving only minimum scope for RBI intervention, as already noted.

However, under the far-right neofascist Modi regime today, a qualitative transformation has taken place. Now, India has become a flourishing example of close integration between corporate capital and neoliberal State where policy decisions are taken in corporate board-rooms, while parliament is increasingly becoming a spectator. The role of the State is like that of a corporate-facilitator, and major component of the economy is speculation than production. Currency sector is no exception to this general rule. Compared to the previous governments at the Centre when the Central Bank had at least namesake intervention in the case of rupee under the ‘crawling peg system’, since 2014, and more specifically under Modi.3, the RBI has completely lost its grip over Indian rupee, as today, India is having a full-fledged flexible or floating exchange rate system where the exchange rate is determined by global corporate-speculative forces.

As a result, compared to the occasional government-led devaluations under previous regulated system, today, instead of any announced devaluation, market-driven depreciation has become an unhindered and continuous process. Its manifestation has been the steep fall in rupee-dollar exchange rate from ₹58.58 to a dollar in 2014 to ₹86.63 per USD as of now. At a time when even international research institutions are predicting about the extreme vulnerability of Indian rupee which is still tied to the apron strings of USD, the far-right government led by Modi, who as Gujarat chief minister had equated the value of the rupee to the honour of the nation, is now diverting the issue by putting baseless claims on India becoming third largest economy under Modi.3. In fact, compared to one-shot devaluations of yesteryears, though the undeclared depreciation under Modi regime leads to a systematic and deep-rooted drain of wealth from India by continuous outflow of real wealth and increasing its all-round external payments burden – in the form of increased debt repayments, more exports of goods and services for a given volume of imports, intensified profit repatriation by MNCs, etc – it is less noticed too. And this neoliberal-neocolonial drain is more complex and multifaceted and hence more horrific than the colonial plunder elucidated by Dadabhai Naoroji in 1867 in his well-known “Drain Theory”.

Today, while the ruling regime and saffron media are boasting about Indian ‘growth miracle’, on account of a host of factors such as US stock market manipulation, Federal Reserve’s monetary policies, speculative-capital flight from India, India’s growing debt burden, increasing trade deficit, etc., Indian rupee is in a downward spiral. However, the irony is that the USD itself is becoming weaker compared to other currencies like Euro and Yen. According to reports, share of USD in world money reserves has fallen by more than 10 percent during the past one decade, more specifically since 2016, and many countries are planning to find alternative means including that of digital currency in the days ahead.  At this critical juncture, as Indian rupee is systematically depreciating against USD, it is high time to take urgent and appropriate steps to terminate the pegging of Indian rupee to the depreciating USD and free it from its clutches altogether.

Courtesy: Countercurrents. org

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A goverment having any concern for the farmers should have accepted these minimum demands through ensuring legal guarantee for them. The apex court’s task is to examine the Constitutional validity of such laws. Hence this move on the part of the fascist regime, which has no qualms to go to any extent in serving corporate agribusiness companies, as was proved in the case of draconian Farm Laws, is a cunning move shirking its duties.

Therefore, while resolutely condemning Modi government’s anti-farmer approach, CPI (ML) Red Star stands in solidarity with both the farmers organisations and agricultural workers unions who are camping on the inter-State boundary of Punjab and Haryana since February 13, 2024. We also call upon all progressive-democratic forces to rise up in solidarity with the farmers and the indefinite strike of farmer leader Dallewal.

P J James
General Secretary
CPI (ML) Red Star

New Delhi
02.01.2025

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