Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)

Communist Party of India
(Marxist-Leninist)

Programme adopted at the Party congress
held in May 1970

1. Our beloved country is one of the biggest and most ancient countries of the world inhabited by 500 million people.

Ours is an agrarian country, a country of the peasant masses, hard-working and talented.

They have rich revolutionary traditions and a glorious cultural heritage.

2. The British imperialists conquered India and established their direct rule some 200 years ago and since then the history of our country has been a history of ceaseless struggles waged by the heroic Indian peasantry against British imperialism and feudal oppression.

The First War of Independence in 1857, a war fought by the peasantry and rebel soldiers, turned into a conflagration engulfing the whole of the vast country, inflicting many humiliating defeats on the imperialists and shaking the very foundations of the alien imperialist rule. This great uprising of the Indian people failed owing to the betrayal by India's feudal princes.

3. Since then India has witnessed innumerable armed present revolts. However, these revolts failed as there was no scientific theory and no revolutionary leadership capable of leading them to victory.

4. The Indian bourgeoisie, comprador in nature, intervened to divert the national liberation struggle from the path of revolution to the path of compromise and surrender.

Beginning from the Champaran peasant struggle, the Gandhian leadership representing the upper stratum of the bourgeoisie and feudal class, with its ideology of 'ahimsa'; 'satyagraha', passive resistance and 'charkha', sought to tailor the national movement to serve the interests of the British imperialist rule and its feudal lackeys.

5. The Great October Revolution brought the ideology of Marxism-Leninism to our country and the Communist Party of India was born.

However, despite tremendous opportunities, the leadership of the working class could not be established over the national liberation struggle as the leadership of the Party refused to fight Gandhism and the Gandhian leadership and to take to the path of revolution.

The leadership refused to integrate the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete practice of Indian revolution.

It refused to integrate the Party with the heroic masses, chiefly the revolutionary peasantry, and to forge a revolutionary united front. It refused to learn from the great liberation struggle of the Chinese people led by the CPC and Chairman Mao Tsetung and to take to the path of armed struggle.

6. On the contrary, the leadership of the CPI consciously trailed behind the leadership of the Congress and betrayed the revolution from the very beginning. The leaders of the CPI were agents of imperialism and feudalism.

Despite the treachery of the leadership, the Party ranks stood with the suffering people, led many class battles and made untold sacrifices for the cause of the Indian proletariat.

7. The smashing defeat of the fascist powers at the hands of the world people led by the Soviet Union under the leadership of Great Stalin and the world-shaking victorious advance of the Great Chinese liberation struggle under the leadership of Chairman Mao brought about a new alignment of forces the world over.

Imperialism was very much weakened and the national liberation struggle of the colonial people surged forward like a torrent throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America, threatening to sweep imperialism and its lackeys away.

8. An unprecedented revolutionary situation overtook the Indian sub-continent too. The mighty movement for the release of 'Azad Hind' prisoners, powerful anti-imperialist demonstrations by students all over India, the great Tebhaga and Bakasht struggles, the anti-feudal struggles in the princely states, the powerful struggle of the P & T workers, the armed revolt of the R.I.N. ratings along with rebellions in the Air Force and the Army and the police revolt in Bihar, the great solidarity actions of the working class and the beginning of the historic armed peasant struggle in Telengana brought the imperialist rule in India almost to the verge of collapse.

9. Faced with such a situation, the British imperialism pressed into services its tried agents--the leaders of the Indian National Congress, Muslim League and of the CPI with a view to crushing this revolutionary upsurge of the Indian people.

The country was partitioned amidst communal carnage and the Congress leadership representing the comprador bourgeoisie and big landlords, was installed in power while the British imperialists stepped into the background.

The sham independence declared in 1947 was nothing but a replacement of the colonial and semi-feudal set-up with a semi-colonial and semi-feudal one.

10. During these years of sham independence the big comprador-bureaucrat bourgeoisie and big landlord ruling classes have been serving their imperialist masters quite faithfully.

These lackeys of imperialism, while preserving the old British imperialist exploitation, have also brought U.S. imperialist and Soviet social-imperialist exploiters to fleece our country.

11. They have mortgaged our country to the imperialist powers, mainly to the U.S. imperialists and Soviet social-imperialists.

With the weakening of the power of British imperialism the world over, the Indian ruling classes have now hired themselves out to U. S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism.

Thus instead of two mountains, British imperialism and feudalism, the Indian people are now weighed down under the four huge mountains, namely, imperialism headed by U.S. imperialism, Soviet social-imperialism, feudalism and comprador-bureaucrat capital. Thus, India has turned into a neo-colony of U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism.

The ruthless exploitation and oppression by these four enemies of the Indian people have created unprecedented miseries, sufferings and calamities.

Millions are struggling on the brink of death. Several millions go hungry, naked, houseless and unemployed.

12. In the name of 'national integration,' these enemies of the people have been suppressing the genuine rights of all the nationalities and national and religious minorities.

The right of self-determination is being denied to the Kashmiris, Nagas and Mizos. Equal status to all the national languages is being denied and Hindi is being sought to be imposed on the people by them.

13. Our country is the country of the peasant masses who constitute over 75 percent of its population. They are the most exploited people of our country living in conditions of semi-starvation and absolute pauperisation.

In India's semi-feudal economy, 80% of the land is concentrated in the hands of the 20% of the landowners, i.e., 'rajahs', landlords and rich peasants, while the starving peasantry constituting 80% of the rural population has no land or very little land.

14. The landless and poor peasants have to turn over 50% to 90% of their annual harvest in the form of rent to the landlords.

The extortionate usurious capital continues to fleece the peasants. Eviction of peasants is the order of the day. Social oppression on scheduled castes including the lynching of Harijans, reminiscent of the middle ages, is continuing unabated.

15. The semi-feudal land relations have transformed our country into a land of perpetual famine, as a result of which millions of people die of starvation every year.

16. In brief, out of all the major contradictions in our country, that is, the contradiction between imperialism and social-imperialism on the one hand and our people on the other, the contradiction between feudalism and the broad masses of the people, the contradiction between capital and labour and the contradiction within the ruling classes, the one between the landlords and the peasantry, i.e., the contradiction between feudalism and the broad masses of the Indian people is the principal contradiction in the present phase.

17. The resolution of this contradiction will lead to the resolution of all other contradictions too.

18. While preserving and perpetuating the semi-feudal set-up, the big comprador-bureaucrat bourgeoisie and big landlord ruling classes have become pawns in the hands of U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism.

19. The phenomenal increase in the total quantum of foreign capital, the heavy remittances of profits abroad, thousands of collaborationist enterprises, total dependence on imperialist "aid, grants and loans" for capital goods, technical know-how, military supplies and armament industries for building military bases and even for markets, unequal trade and P.L. 480 agreements have made U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism the overlords of our country.

20. U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism have brought the vital sectors of the economy of our country under their control. U.S. imperialism collaborates mainly with private capital and is now penetrating into the industries in the state sector, while Soviet social-imperialism has brought under its control mainly the industries in the state sector and is at the same time trying to enter into collaboration with private capital.

21. US. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism do everything possible to foster the growth of comprador-bureaucrat capitalism for continuing their unbridled exploitation of the Indian people.

22. The much-trumpeted "public sector" is being built up by many imperialist exploiters for employing their capital and for exploiting the cheap labour power and raw materials of our country.

The public sector is nothing but a clever device to hoodwink the Indian people and continue their plunder. It is state monopoly capitalism i.e., bureaucrat capitalism.

23. With their octopus-like grip on India's economy, the U.S. imperialists and the Soviet social-imperialists control the political, cultural and military spheres of the life of our country.

24. At the dictates of U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism, India's reactionary ruling classes pursue a foreign policy that serves the interests of imperialism, social-imperialism and reaction.

It has been tailored to the needs of the global strategy of the U.S. imperialists and Soviet social-imperialists to encircle Socialist China and suppress the national liberation struggle raging in various parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America, of which Vietnam has become the spearhead.

India's aggression against Socialist China in 1962 and her continual provocation against China since then at the instance of U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism, her support to the Soviet attack on China, her tacit approval of Soviet aggression against Czechoslovakia, her dirty role in supporting U.S. imperialism against the Vietnamese people prove beyond a shadow of doubt that India's ruling classes are faithful stooges of U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism.

25. These hard facts irrefutably prove the semi-colonial character of our society, besides its semi-feudal character.

26. As the obsolete semi-feudal society acts as the social base of U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism and as it facilitates also the plunder of our people by comprador-bureaucrat capital, the problem of the peasantry becomes the basic problem of the Indian revolution.

27. Therefore, the basic task of the Indian revolution is to overthrow the rule of feudalism, comprador-bureaucrat capitalism, imperialism and social-imperialism. This determines the stage of our revolution.

It is the stage of democratic revolution, the essence of which is agrarian revolution.

28. It, however, is not the old type of democratic revolution but a new type of democratic revolution, People's Democratic Revolution, as it forms a part of the world socialist revolution, ushered in by the Great October Revolution, and as such, it can be successfully led by the working class alone and by no other class.

The working class is the most revolutionary class and the most organised advanced detachment of our people.

29. This revolution will establish the dictatorship of the working class, the peasantry, the petty-bourgeoisie and even a section of the small and middle bourgeoisie under the leadership of the working class.

They, together, constitute the overwhelming majority of the Indian people. It will be a state guaranteeing democracy for 90 percent of the people and enforcing dictatorship over a handful of enemies. That is why it is People's Democracy.

30. The main force of the democratic revolution led by the working class is peasantry.

The working class fully relies on the landless and poor peasants and firmly unites with the middle peasants and even wins over a section of the rich peasants while neutralizing the rest.

It will be only a tiny section of the rich peasants that finally joints the enemies of the revolution. The urban petty-bourgeoisie and the revolutionary intellectuals of our country are revolutionary forces and will be a reliable ally in the revolution.

31. The small and middle bourgeoisie, businessmen and bourgeois intellectuals are vacillating and unstable allies of the democratic revolution.

They will now support, then oppose and sometimes even betray the revolution. Their dual role in the revolution arises because of their contradiction as well as unity with the enemies of our revolution.

32. Thus, in order to carry the democratic revolution through to the end it is necessary that a Democratic Front of all these classes is built up under the leadership of the working class.

33. This Front can, however, be built up when worker-peasant unity is achieved in the course of armed struggle and after Red political power is established at least in some parts of the country.

34. It must be understood that the working class can and will exercise its leadership over the People's Democratic Revolution through its political party, the Communist Party of India (M-L).

It also performs its vanguard role by launching struggles on political issues, both national and international, by solidarity actions in support of the revolutionary classes, mainly, the revolutionary struggles of the peasantry and by sending its class-conscious vanguard section to organise and lead the peasants' armed struggle.

35. The path of India's liberation, as in the case of all other colonial and semi-colonial and semi-feudal countries, is the path of People's War.

As Chairman Mao has taught us, "The Revolutionary war is the war of the masses; it can be waged only by mobilising the masses and relying on them. "

36. The working class can wage a successful People's War by creating small bases of armed struggle all over the country and consolidating the political power of the people. This is possible only by developing guerilla warfare which is and will remain the basic form of struggle throughout the entire period of our Democratic Revolution.

37. As Comrade Lin Piao has pointed out, "Guerilla warfare is the only way to mobilise and apply the entire strength of the people against the enemy." Guerilla warfare alone can unleash the initiative and rouse the creative genius of the Indian people, make them perform miracles, function in various ways and can enable them to effectively co-ordinate those ways.

Thus guerilla war alone can expand the small bases of armed struggle to large, extensive areas through mighty waves of People's War and develop the People's Army which will overthrow the reactionary rule of the four mountains in the countryside, encircle and capture the cities, establish the People's Democratic Dictatorship all over the country and resolutely carry it forward to the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and Socialism.

38. The People's Democratic State will carry out the following major tasks:

(a) Confiscation of all the banks and enterprises of foreign capital and liquidation of all imperialist debt.

(b) Confiscation of all enterprises of comprador-bureaucrat capital.

(c) Confiscation of all land belonging to the landlords and their redistribution among the landless and poor peasants on the principle of land to the tillers; cancellation of all debts of the peasantry and other toiling people. All facilities necessary for development of agriculture to be guaranteed.

(d) Enforce eight hours a day, increase wages, institute unemployment relief and social insurance, remove all inequalities on the basis of equal pay for equal work.

(e) Improve the living conditions of soldiers and give land and job to the ex-servicemen.

(f) Enforce better living conditions of the people and remove unemployment.

(g) Develop new democratic culture in place of colonial and feudal culture.

(h) Abolish the present educational system and educational institutions and build up a new educational system and new educational institutions consistent with the needs of People's Democratic India.

(i) Abolish the caste system, remove all social inequalities and all discrimination on the religious ground and guarantee equality of status to women.

(j) Unify India and recognise the right of self-determination.

(k) Give equal status to all national languages.

(l) Abolish all exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous assessments and adopt a consolidated progressive tax system.

(m) People's political power to be exercised through Revolutionary People's Councils at all levels.

(n) Alliance to be formed with the international proletariat and the oppressed nations of the world under the leadership of the CPC.

39. The Democratic Revolution in India is taking place in the era of Mao Tsetung when world imperialism is heading for a total collapse and socialism is advancing towards world-wide victory.

Our revolution is a part of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution which has consolidated socialism and proletarian dictatorship in China into the reliable base area of the World Revolution.

Our revolution is taking place at a time when the great Ninth Congress of the great, glorious and correct CPC--the Congress of unity and victory--has tremendously inspired the international proletariat.

It is taking place at a time when the CPC, headed by Chairman Mao and Vice-Chairman Lin Piao, is leading the international proletariat to fulfil its historic mission of emancipating the whole of mankind from the rule of imperialism and reaction and establishing Socialism and Communism on this earth.

We are a contingent of this great army of the international proletariat.

40. The CPI(M-L) is placing the Programme of People's Democratic Revolution before the Indian people and dedicates itself to this great revolutionary cause.

The Party is confident that the granite unity of our people with all socialist and oppressed nations, particularly the Chinese people, will bring about the victory of the Indian revolution, which as Chairman Mao has predicted, "will end the imperialist reactionary era in the history of mankind" and will ensure the world-wide victory of Socialism.

Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Programme adopted at the Party congress held in May 1970 1. Our beloved country is one of the biggest and most ancient countries of the world inhabited by 500 million people. Ours is an agrarian country, a country of the peasant masses, hard-working and talented. They have rich revolutionary traditions and a glorious cultural heritage. 2. The British imperialists conquered India and established their direct rule some 200 years ago and since then the history of our country has been a history of ceaseless struggles waged by the heroic Indian peasantry against British imperialism and feudal oppression. The First War of Independence in 1857, a war fought by the peasantry and rebel soldiers, turned into a conflagration engulfing the whole of the vast country, inflicting many humiliating defeats on the imperialists and shaking the very foundations of the alien imperialist rule. This great uprising of the Indian people failed owing to the betrayal by India's feudal princes. 3. Since then India has witnessed innumerable armed present revolts. However, these revolts failed as there was no scientific theory and no revolutionary leadership capable of leading them to victory. 4. The Indian bourgeoisie, comprador in nature, intervened to divert the national liberation struggle from the path of revolution to the path of compromise and surrender. Beginning from the Champaran peasant struggle, the Gandhian leadership representing the upper stratum of the bourgeoisie and feudal class, with its ideology of 'ahimsa'; 'satyagraha', passive resistance and 'charkha', sought to tailor the national movement to serve the interests of the British imperialist rule and its feudal lackeys. 5. The Great October Revolution brought the ideology of Marxism-Leninism to our country and the Communist Party of India was born. However, despite tremendous opportunities, the leadership of the working class could not be established over the national liberation struggle as the leadership of the Party refused to fight Gandhism and the Gandhian leadership and to take to the path of revolution. The leadership refused to integrate the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete practice of Indian revolution. It refused to integrate the Party with the heroic masses, chiefly the revolutionary peasantry, and to forge a revolutionary united front. It refused to learn from the great liberation struggle of the Chinese people led by the CPC and Chairman Mao Tsetung and to take to the path of armed struggle. 6. On the contrary, the leadership of the CPI consciously trailed behind the leadership of the Congress and betrayed the revolution from the very beginning. The leaders of the CPI were agents of imperialism and feudalism. Despite the treachery of the leadership, the Party ranks stood with the suffering people, led many class battles and made untold sacrifices for the cause of the Indian proletariat. 7. The smashing defeat of the fascist powers at the hands of the world people led by the Soviet Union under the leadership of Great Stalin and the world-shaking victorious advance of the Great Chinese liberation struggle under the leadership of Chairman Mao brought about a new alignment of forces the world over. Imperialism was very much weakened and the national liberation struggle of the colonial people surged forward like a torrent throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America, threatening to sweep imperialism and its lackeys away. 8. An unprecedented revolutionary situation overtook the Indian sub-continent too. The mighty movement for the release of 'Azad Hind' prisoners, powerful anti-imperialist demonstrations by students all over India, the great Tebhaga and Bakasht struggles, the anti-feudal struggles in the princely states, the powerful struggle of the P & T workers, the armed revolt of the R.I.N. ratings along with rebellions in the Air Force and the Army and the police revolt in Bihar, the great solidarity actions of the working class and the beginning of the historic armed peasant struggle in Telengana brought the imperialist rule in India almost to the verge of collapse. 9. Faced with such a situation, the British imperialism pressed into services its tried agents--the leaders of the Indian National Congress, Muslim League and of the CPI with a view to crushing this revolutionary upsurge of the Indian people. The country was partitioned amidst communal carnage and the Congress leadership representing the comprador bourgeoisie and big landlords, was installed in power while the British imperialists stepped into the background. The sham independence declared in 1947 was nothing but a replacement of the colonial and semi-feudal set-up with a semi-colonial and semi-feudal one. 10. During these years of sham independence the big comprador-bureaucrat bourgeoisie and big landlord ruling classes have been serving their imperialist masters quite faithfully. These lackeys of imperialism, while preserving the old British imperialist exploitation, have also brought U.S. imperialist and Soviet social-imperialist exploiters to fleece our country. 11. They have mortgaged our country to the imperialist powers, mainly to the U.S. imperialists and Soviet social-imperialists. With the weakening of the power of British imperialism the world over, the Indian ruling classes have now hired themselves out to U. S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism. Thus instead of two mountains, British imperialism and feudalism, the Indian people are now weighed down under the four huge mountains, namely, imperialism headed by U.S. imperialism, Soviet social-imperialism, feudalism and comprador-bureaucrat capital. Thus, India has turned into a neo-colony of U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism. The ruthless exploitation and oppression by these four enemies of the Indian people have created unprecedented miseries, sufferings and calamities. Millions are struggling on the brink of death. Several millions go hungry, naked, houseless and unemployed. 12. In the name of 'national integration,' these enemies of the people have been suppressing the genuine rights of all the nationalities and national and religious minorities. The right of self-determination is being denied to the Kashmiris, Nagas and Mizos. Equal status to all the national languages is being denied and Hindi is being sought to be imposed on the people by them. 13. Our country is the country of the peasant masses who constitute over 75 percent of its population. They are the most exploited people of our country living in conditions of semi-starvation and absolute pauperisation. In India's semi-feudal economy, 80% of the land is concentrated in the hands of the 20% of the landowners, i.e., 'rajahs', landlords and rich peasants, while the starving peasantry constituting 80% of the rural population has no land or very little land. 14. The landless and poor peasants have to turn over 50% to 90% of their annual harvest in the form of rent to the landlords. The extortionate usurious capital continues to fleece the peasants. Eviction of peasants is the order of the day. Social oppression on scheduled castes including the lynching of Harijans, reminiscent of the middle ages, is continuing unabated. 15. The semi-feudal land relations have transformed our country into a land of perpetual famine, as a result of which millions of people die of starvation every year. 16. In brief, out of all the major contradictions in our country, that is, the contradiction between imperialism and social-imperialism on the one hand and our people on the other, the contradiction between feudalism and the broad masses of the people, the contradiction between capital and labour and the contradiction within the ruling classes, the one between the landlords and the peasantry, i.e., the contradiction between feudalism and the broad masses of the Indian people is the principal contradiction in the present phase. 17. The resolution of this contradiction will lead to the resolution of all other contradictions too. 18. While preserving and perpetuating the semi-feudal set-up, the big comprador-bureaucrat bourgeoisie and big landlord ruling classes have become pawns in the hands of U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism. 19. The phenomenal increase in the total quantum of foreign capital, the heavy remittances of profits abroad, thousands of collaborationist enterprises, total dependence on imperialist "aid, grants and loans" for capital goods, technical know-how, military supplies and armament industries for building military bases and even for markets, unequal trade and P.L. 480 agreements have made U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism the overlords of our country. 20. U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism have brought the vital sectors of the economy of our country under their control. U.S. imperialism collaborates mainly with private capital and is now penetrating into the industries in the state sector, while Soviet social-imperialism has brought under its control mainly the industries in the state sector and is at the same time trying to enter into collaboration with private capital. 21. US. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism do everything possible to foster the growth of comprador-bureaucrat capitalism for continuing their unbridled exploitation of the Indian people. 22. The much-trumpeted "public sector" is being built up by many imperialist exploiters for employing their capital and for exploiting the cheap labour power and raw materials of our country. The public sector is nothing but a clever device to hoodwink the Indian people and continue their plunder. It is state monopoly capitalism i.e., bureaucrat capitalism. 23. With their octopus-like grip on India's economy, the U.S. imperialists and the Soviet social-imperialists control the political, cultural and military spheres of the life of our country. 24. At the dictates of U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism, India's reactionary ruling classes pursue a foreign policy that serves the interests of imperialism, social-imperialism and reaction. It has been tailored to the needs of the global strategy of the U.S. imperialists and Soviet social-imperialists to encircle Socialist China and suppress the national liberation struggle raging in various parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America, of which Vietnam has become the spearhead. India's aggression against Socialist China in 1962 and her continual provocation against China since then at the instance of U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism, her support to the Soviet attack on China, her tacit approval of Soviet aggression against Czechoslovakia, her dirty role in supporting U.S. imperialism against the Vietnamese people prove beyond a shadow of doubt that India's ruling classes are faithful stooges of U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism. 25. These hard facts irrefutably prove the semi-colonial character of our society, besides its semi-feudal character. 26. As the obsolete semi-feudal society acts as the social base of U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism and as it facilitates also the plunder of our people by comprador-bureaucrat capital, the problem of the peasantry becomes the basic problem of the Indian revolution. 27. Therefore, the basic task of the Indian revolution is to overthrow the rule of feudalism, comprador-bureaucrat capitalism, imperialism and social-imperialism. This determines the stage of our revolution. It is the stage of democratic revolution, the essence of which is agrarian revolution. 28. It, however, is not the old type of democratic revolution but a new type of democratic revolution, People's Democratic Revolution, as it forms a part of the world socialist revolution, ushered in by the Great October Revolution, and as such, it can be successfully led by the working class alone and by no other class. The working class is the most revolutionary class and the most organised advanced detachment of our people. 29. This revolution will establish the dictatorship of the working class, the peasantry, the petty-bourgeoisie and even a section of the small and middle bourgeoisie under the leadership of the working class. They, together, constitute the overwhelming majority of the Indian people. It will be a state guaranteeing democracy for 90 percent of the people and enforcing dictatorship over a handful of enemies. That is why it is People's Democracy. 30. The main force of the democratic revolution led by the working class is peasantry. The working class fully relies on the landless and poor peasants and firmly unites with the middle peasants and even wins over a section of the rich peasants while neutralizing the rest. It will be only a tiny section of the rich peasants that finally joints the enemies of the revolution. The urban petty-bourgeoisie and the revolutionary intellectuals of our country are revolutionary forces and will be a reliable ally in the revolution. 31. The small and middle bourgeoisie, businessmen and bourgeois intellectuals are vacillating and unstable allies of the democratic revolution. They will now support, then oppose and sometimes even betray the revolution. Their dual role in the revolution arises because of their contradiction as well as unity with the enemies of our revolution. 32. Thus, in order to carry the democratic revolution through to the end it is necessary that a Democratic Front of all these classes is built up under the leadership of the working class. 33. This Front can, however, be built up when worker-peasant unity is achieved in the course of armed struggle and after Red political power is established at least in some parts of the country. 34. It must be understood that the working class can and will exercise its leadership over the People's Democratic Revolution through its political party, the Communist Party of India (M-L). It also performs its vanguard role by launching struggles on political issues, both national and international, by solidarity actions in support of the revolutionary classes, mainly, the revolutionary struggles of the peasantry and by sending its class-conscious vanguard section to organise and lead the peasants' armed struggle. 35. The path of India's liberation, as in the case of all other colonial and semi-colonial and semi-feudal countries, is the path of People's War. As Chairman Mao has taught us, "The Revolutionary war is the war of the masses; it can be waged only by mobilising the masses and relying on them. " 36. The working class can wage a successful People's War by creating small bases of armed struggle all over the country and consolidating the political power of the people. This is possible only by developing guerilla warfare which is and will remain the basic form of struggle throughout the entire period of our Democratic Revolution. 37. As Comrade Lin Piao has pointed out, "Guerilla warfare is the only way to mobilise and apply the entire strength of the people against the enemy." Guerilla warfare alone can unleash the initiative and rouse the creative genius of the Indian people, make them perform miracles, function in various ways and can enable them to effectively co-ordinate those ways. Thus guerilla war alone can expand the small bases of armed struggle to large, extensive areas through mighty waves of People's War and develop the People's Army which will overthrow the reactionary rule of the four mountains in the countryside, encircle and capture the cities, establish the People's Democratic Dictatorship all over the country and resolutely carry it forward to the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and Socialism. 38. The People's Democratic State will carry out the following major tasks: (a) Confiscation of all the banks and enterprises of foreign capital and liquidation of all imperialist debt. (b) Confiscation of all enterprises of comprador-bureaucrat capital. (c) Confiscation of all land belonging to the landlords and their redistribution among the landless and poor peasants on the principle of land to the tillers; cancellation of all debts of the peasantry and other toiling people. All facilities necessary for development of agriculture to be guaranteed. (d) Enforce eight hours a day, increase wages, institute unemployment relief and social insurance, remove all inequalities on the basis of equal pay for equal work. (e) Improve the living conditions of soldiers and give land and job to the ex-servicemen. (f) Enforce better living conditions of the people and remove unemployment. (g) Develop new democratic culture in place of colonial and feudal culture. (h) Abolish the present educational system and educational institutions and build up a new educational system and new educational institutions consistent with the needs of People's Democratic India. (i) Abolish the caste system, remove all social inequalities and all discrimination on the religious ground and guarantee equality of status to women. (j) Unify India and recognise the right of self-determination. (k) Give equal status to all national languages. (l) Abolish all exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous assessments and adopt a consolidated progressive tax system. (m) People's political power to be exercised through Revolutionary People's Councils at all levels. (n) Alliance to be formed with the international proletariat and the oppressed nations of the world under the leadership of the CPC. 39. The Democratic Revolution in India is taking place in the era of Mao Tsetung when world imperialism is heading for a total collapse and socialism is advancing towards world-wide victory. Our revolution is a part of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution which has consolidated socialism and proletarian dictatorship in China into the reliable base area of the World Revolution. Our revolution is taking place at a time when the great Ninth Congress of the great, glorious and correct CPC--the Congress of unity and victory--has tremendously inspired the international proletariat. It is taking place at a time when the CPC, headed by Chairman Mao and Vice-Chairman Lin Piao, is leading the international proletariat to fulfil its historic mission of emancipating the whole of mankind from the rule of imperialism and reaction and establishing Socialism and Communism on this earth. We are a contingent of this great army of the international proletariat. 40. The CPI(M-L) is placing the Programme of People's Democratic Revolution before the Indian people and dedicates itself to this great revolutionary cause. The Party is confident that the granite unity of our people with all socialist and oppressed nations, particularly the Chinese people, will bring about the victory of the Indian revolution, which as Chairman Mao has predicted, "will end the imperialist reactionary era in the history of mankind" and will ensure the world-wide victory of Socialism.