Socialist Register: Vol 53

Socialist Register 2017: Rethinking Revolution

Table of Contents

Articles

Socialist Register 2017 Preface Leo Panitch, Gregory Albo

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The Distinctive Heritage of 1917: Resuscitating Revolution’s Longue Durée Bryan D. Palmer, Joan Sangster

Class, Party and the Challenge of State Transformation Leo Panitch, Sam Gindin

The Actuality Of Revolution Jodi Dean

Radicalizing the Movement-Party Relation: From Ralph Miliband to Jeremy Corbyn and Beyond Hilary Wainwright

The Heritage of Eurocommunism in the Contemporary Radical Left Fabien Escalona

Revolution in a Warming World: Lessons from the Russian to the Syrian Revolutio

Andreas Malm

Beyond Eco-Catastrophism: The Conditions for Solar Communism David Schwartzman

South Africa’s Next Revolt: Eco-Socialist Opportunities Patrick Bond

Turning the Tide: Revolutionary Potential and the Limits of Bolivia’s ‘Process of Change’ Robert Cavooris

Something Left in Latin America: Venezuela and the Struggle for Twenty-First Century Socialism Steve Striffler

In Search of the ‘Modern Prince’: The New Québec Rebellion Pierre Beaudet

Marx and Engels on the Revolutionary Party August H. Nimtz 1917 and the ‘Workers’ State’: Looking Back A W Zurbrugg The ‘People’s War’ and the Legacy of the Chinese Revolution Wang Hui Revolution as ‘National Liberation’ and the Origins of Neoliberal Antiracism Adolph Reed Picturing the Whole: Form, Reform, Revolution Walter Benn Michaels Addressing the Impossible Slavoj Zizek On Revolutionary Optimism of the Intellect Leo Panitch

What we need to guard

Fundamental rights are no gifts of the state, the Constitution only confirms their existence. 

Our freedom fighters and members of the Constituent Assembly who drafted free India’s Constitution attached great importance to fundamental rights. They did not subscribe to the fallacy that fundamental rights are a gift from the state to its citizens. They rightly believed that individuals possess basic human rights independently of any Constitution by reason of the fact that they are members of the human family. A Constitution does not “confer” fundamental rights. It confirms their existence and accords them protection. That is the rationale of fundamental rights.
A controversial issue is whether a court can deduce additional fundamental rights which are not expressly set out in the Constitution. The US Supreme Court has deduced rights of privacy and parenthood on the reasoning that the specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights “have penumbras formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance”. A similar approach has been adopted by Irish courts in the Republic of Ireland.
Our Supreme Court has also deduced fundamental rights which are not specificallymentioned in the Chapter on Fundamental Rights on the principle that certain unarticulated rights are implicit in the enumerated guarantees. For example, freedom of the press has been deduced on the ground that it is implicit in the guarantee of freedom of speech and expression. The right to travel abroad and return to one’s country has been spelt out from the expression “personal liberty” in Article 21 of the Constitution. The Court has also ruled that right to education until the age of 14 is a fundamental right emanating from the all pervasive Article 21. No fundamental right is or can be absolute. Every Constitution provides for restriction of fundamental rights in general public interest.
However, the restriction imposed should not be excessive or disproportionate. In determining this issue, judicial subjectivity is likely to play a part. But that is no ground for declining judicial review. The Supreme Court, in the celebrated State of Madras v. V.G. Rao decided in March 1952, acknowledged that “it is inevitable that the social philosophy and the scale of values of the judges participating in the decision would play an important part”, but emphasised that if the impugned legislation violated a fundamental right it would have to be struck down because as regards “fundamental rights”, the Court has been assigned the role of a sentinel on the “qui vive”.
A well settled principle of constitutional adjudication is to construe a statute in a manner that will obviate constitutional challenge. Courts in the US have acted on this principle. Our Supreme Court has also adopted the same principle and, in order to sustain the constitutionality of a statute, adopted the judicial technique of reading down or reading into the impugned provision certain words.
Utmost judicial vigilance is necessary with regard to restraints on the fundamental right of freedom of expression and personal liberty, which are the favourite targets of attack by authoritarian regimes because their suppression enables the regime to neutralise the dissenter, jettison accountability and ensure its continuance.
Serious violations of fundamental rights occur during emergencies. The usual facile excuse offered is that fundamental rights are required to be suspended temporarily in order that the nation may survive. Actual experience establishes that those to whom supreme authority has been conferred are reluctant to give it up. Temporary dictatorship often becomes permanent tyranny because when the safeguards of the Constitution are surrendered to the rulers the means of getting them back also get surrendered.
A mere declaration of invalidity of a detention order or seizure of the press or revocation of a licence to carry on a business would not provide a meaningful remedy to a person whose fundamental rights have been violated without issuing
 appropriate directions for compensation for breach of constitutional safeguard.
A notable achievement in the protection and promotion of fundamental rights has been by development of Public Interest Litigation (PIL).
Thanks to PIL, enjoyment of fundamental rights has become a living reality, to some extent, for at least some illiterate, indigent and exploited segments in our society. Numerous prisoners languishing in jails inordinately awaiting trial have been released; persons treated like “serfs” and held in bondage have secured freedom and have been rehabilitated; conditions of inmates in care homes and in asylums for the insane; and of workers in stone quarries and brick kilns, have been ameliorated. Judicial review in PIL is a delicate exercise and can also cause problems and a cynic may well question its utility. The answer is that it has a salutary effect on administration which knows that it has to conform to the discipline of fundamental rights. Above all, the fundamental rights part in the Constitution is a salutary reminder that the powers of the state are not unlimited and that human personality is priceless. We need these reminders constantly.

 Written by Soli J. Sorabjee

 The writer is a former attorney general for India

Source: Indian Express, 12-01-2017

 

CAT results 2017: Patna boy Aditya Chandrayan scores big

Aditya Chandrayan of Bihar scored 99.7 percentile at the common admission test (CAT) for India’s top business schools, including the IIMs, by studying for just 2 hours every day. The results were declared on Monday.
“I was expecting around 98 percentile. As you cannot predict accuracy in the verbal section, I kept my estimates a bit low. However, I was overwhelmed to see the results of my efforts,” Chandrayan, who is among the top scorers in the state, said.
Percentile denotes how many candidates have been ranked below the student in question.
The greatest example he set for the aspirants is to study and revise daily “with total concentration even if you have just two hours in a day”.

Chandrayan went to Don Bosco Academy and then to DAV-BSEB before graduating from Bengaluru’s Sir M Vishwesvaraya Institute of Technology. He did not have the time to join regular classroom coaching after he got a job with TESCO and prepared for the test himself.
“I was working in a company in which I had to give nine hours daily. I just used to study for 90 minutes or two hours maximum, with full concentration. About 90 minutes of daily study routine is enough if you are studying with focus and in a planned way, rather than studying for 10 hours without focus,” he said.
 My father, Dr Sudhir Kumar Singh, told me strictly not to pursue medical stream as we saw in the past few years medical professionals being threatened and killed. That ended my dreams of becoming a doctor,” he said.
The 24-year-old wanted to join Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. However, he has got a call from IIM-Kozhikode.
He is also associated with online learning solution Urban Clap and teaches mathematics to students and involved in community service.

Source: Hindustan Times, 12-01-2017

What are the reasons for increasing rape cases in India?

Has the brutalisation of women risen alarmingly? Reports of the mass molestation of women in Bengaluru on new year’s eve in the presence of a posse of police cannot be dismissed as an isolated episode if juxtaposed with subsequent rapes in the same city, an upsurge in gang rapes and rapes of minor girls by relatives and neighbours that sometimes result in tragic deaths.
Following official denials, and chiding by a state minister about how inappropriately the ‘victims’ were dressed and their westernised lifestyle, public uproar led to the delayed arrests of a few suspects. The police apathy is outrageous for its failure to stop physical assaults on women. Equally outrageous is the crowds hanging around as mute spectators of a salacious drama in which women were groped, stripped and assaulted. The fact that large numbers of rapists roam free is not just a manifestation of inefficiency of the judiciary and the police but also of bestial masculinity.
As these are symptoms of a deeper malady? 

 In order to understand the surge in rapes - their number more than doubled between 2001 and 2015 -we have analysed what happened in a few states. The focus is on some key variables that explain the differences in the incidence of rapes not just across the states but also over time.
The incidence of rapes is determined by interplay of several factors: Economic, demographic, social, efficiency of the police and judicial systems, and exposure to mass media. Our analysis shows the following: The more affluent a state is, the lower is the incidence of rapes but the effect is small; the greater the sex imbalance (or the lower the number of women to men), the higher is the incidence of rapes; the higher the ratio of female workers to male workers, the lower is the occurence of rapes; somewhat surprisingly, the higher the media exposure (measured as readership/ literate population), the higher is the incidence of rapes; the effect of alcoholism is contributory and signficant; open defecation is associated with higher occurrence of rapes - especially in rural areas; and, finally, the higher the conviction rate (number of persons convicted/number of persons registered for committing a rape), the lower is the incidence of rape.
Women are unwilling to report even those incidents that fit the legal definition of rape or attempted rape. Sometimes this is due to their successful resistance and the ambiguous feelings that they have about whether the harm that was inflicted reached the level of a criminal act, and their doubts about the integrity of the system to which they have to report.

However, with expanding employment opportunities for women, they have become more autonomous and assertive. So some increase in reporting rapes is not unlikely. Although media coverage of sexual violence and rapes has increased significantly after the ghastly December 16, 2012, rape there are reporting biases.
Massive coverage is frequently given to rape incidents that take place where the channel’s bureaus are based. When the location shifts to small towns the level of the media interest drops. Custodial rape in conflict areas in India (Kashmir, North East and Chhattisgarh) is often ignored, and considered less credible to merit reporting in the larger national interest.So on balance an increase in the reporting of rapes can’t be ruled out.
Recalling the causal relationships identified earlier, we analyse what happened in some of the best states (with the lowest incidence of rapes), worst states (with the highest incidence of rapes) and a special case, Delhi (where the incidence of rapes rose four times).
Let us first consider the best state in terms of low incidence of rapes in 2001. Karnataka was the top ranked state in 2001 but worsened by 2015. The number of rapes more than doubled. While there was a slight increase in the sex ratio, and much greater affluence, there was a drop in the ratio of female workers to male workers, a drop in the conviction rate and a sharp increase in open defecation. As a result, Karnataka ceased to be among the three best performers in 2015.
Madhya Pradesh was among the three worst performers in 2001 and it remained so in 2015 but with one-and-a-half times higher incidence of rapes. The female worker/male worker ratio reduced, and open defecation and alcoholism rose. Their positive effects on rapes more than offset the favourable effects of the higher sex ratio and greater affluence.
Delhi stands out as the number of rapes increased about six times. The sex ratio rose, there was greater affluence and a higher female worker/male worker ratio. While these were likely to reduce the number of rapes, their negative effects were more than compensated by higher open defecation, alcoholism, and a marked reduction in the conviction rate.
It is clear then that curbing of bestial masculinity and abysmal inefficiency of the police and judicial system pose daunting challenges.
Geetika Dang is an independent researcher; Vani S Kulkarni is lecturer in Sociology, University of Pennsylvania; and Raghav Gaiha is (Honorary) Professorial Fellow, Global Development Institute, University of Manchester
The views expressed are personal 

Source: Hindustan Times, 12-01-2017

Why I Don't Follow Vivekananda Anymore

Anshul Chaturvedi





I first picked up the teachings of Vivekananda when i was just out of Class X, some 27 years back. And i first wrote something in this column ­ on the man who i by then described as my philosophical guru ­ in 2004, 12 years ago. Over the years, increasingly, i have thought about his works, spoken about them, written about them. But something's been changing.
The recurrent need to explain something entirely in his words has diminished. The frequency with which i have to flip open the pages of my old, well-worn and underlined books on and by Vivekananda has been quietly reducing. The sense of panic when they get briefly misplaced isn't as high. For something i wrote about Vivekananda recently , the learned gentleman reading the draft took a deep breath and said to me, “You know, don't get me wrong, but there's more of what you think here than of what he says.“
That was when i got some sense of why that charge was coming my way . Once i understood and absorbed Vivekananda ­ absorbed till the point i didn't need to pick up the books to quote him, didn't see many of his thoughts just as thoughts but as experiments i'd done with my life, things i'd lived out ­ my reflexes imperceptibly changed.
Contradictory as it may appear, the more i followed him, the more the idea of `following' itself began to seem pedestrian. Over time, by absorbing what he was saying, i learnt to not believe in indisputable truths but instead to believe in doubt; to consistently question, to ask, to wonder; to not be God-fearing but to fear the idea of being afraid; to realise that any entity that i fear is an entity that diminishes me. From the man who wore saffron i learnt not to leave the interpretation of my life's rights and wrongs to those who wear saffron ­ or any other shade of righteousness.
And so, i realised that the less i blindly hero-worshipped Vivekananda, the greater was his success as my hero, as my teacher. After all, the victory of a teacher at school lies not in our need to refer all questions back to him, but in our increasing need to not do that since he has enabled us to master the subject.Why then, should the victory of a philosophy lie in the need of the follower to keep following, instead of mastering the thought itself ? The Little Leader needs that every word of his be unquestionably worshipped. The evolved mind of a Master looks to go beyond that, as Krishna did at the end of the Gita ­ it looks to talk to you as an equal and then leaves the final call to you.
I have for long been enthralled by this dramatic, flamboyant thing that Vivekananda said: “The older i grow, the more everything seems to me to lie in manliness. This is my new gospel. Do even evil like a man. Be wicked, if you must, on a grand scale!“ The older i grow, the more everything about following Vivekananda seems to me to lie in understanding the core of his life, not in being a clerical follower of his writings. I have begun to think that to truly follow Vivekananda is to lose the reflex of `following' itself.

How the times are changing

The information revolution is radically altering voters’ expectations. Political parties can ignore this only at their own peril.

We recently surveyed a small village, Khaati, tucked away in a corner of Uttarakhand. It takes two days to get to Khaati from Delhi; electricity is yet to see any light here. When we asked residents what they most wanted, one of the top desires mentioned was television.

We were surprised. “We want to be a part of the world,” one villager explained. The desire for television marks not just a need for entertainment, but also a demand to be part of the information age. We live in times when news about what’s happening in other parts of the world is accessible and connectivity is possible. Little wonder then that the information age is influencing everything, including politics.

Consider how the average voter today has terrific amounts of information through phones, television and radio. This flood of information is changing how voters think and make decisions. And politicians and political parties are facing the effects of this changing thought process through unexpected election results, shifts in governance priorities and the rise of collective movements. Recent years have seen a particularly strong increase in such voter responses — intelligent parties should study these closely.

In Delhi, we saw the rise of a new party that had a non-political class of people. TheAam Aadmi Party’s leader is an ex-bureaucrat whose strength was his non-political, corruption-free background. He brought in members who shared his vision. The first time AAP came to power, it was evident that people wanted a change from “politics as usual” — but the extent to which the voter has changed was truly reflected when Kejriwal was elected a second time, even though he had abruptly ended his first term. In choosing him again, the voter demonstrated that the way she thinks about politics and politicians had changed.

Delhi is not the only example. In Bihar, we saw the unexpected alliance of two arch rivals being accepted by voters, Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad joining forces in the last election. And finally, in his bid for national power, Narendra Modi was able to run a presidential-style campaign never seen before in India, and convince an overwhelming number of voters to support him, again, in a way we haven’t seen
in Indian history.

These surprising results point to a larger, deeper trend amongst voters. With the deluge of information, voters are challenging status quo models of leadership and seeking alternatives. This is impacting governance as well. The central government is demonstrating that vividly. The unexpected announcement of demonetisation has shaken up India. During a time of relative economic calm, the decision to pull back notes in order to fight corruption is jolting. And while there are questions around the implementation of the programme, there is also unanimous agreement that this is a bold decision taken by the prime minister, following his surgical strikes on Pakistan, another decision
applauded by most voters.

In fact, PM Modi is rapidly reforming the style of governance. He has introduced a series of major programmes, coupling these by asking voters to do their bit. For example, Modi has directly appealed to citizens to keep their communities clean and pay applicable taxes. This has resonated with voters. As BJP continues to win state elections, it is evident that the PM is echoing the sentiment of the people. Other parties, like AAP, are also taking up a similar model of governance, focusing on change by making previously unacknowledged sectors like education a priority.

Parties which are changing the way they offer policies clearly recognise that voters are no longer interested in business as usual — instead, they are looking for an active government, visibly working to improve their lives. And if parties fail to offer or implement this, voters won’t hesitate to express their discontent.

In fact, when the public feels discontented now, people take to the streets. From the Anna Hazare movement to the Hardik Patel campaign to the JNU protests, people have been unafraid to express their anger. Social media and communication tools (such as WhatsApp) have empowered people with the capacity to organise and unite quickly. The information age has instilled a fierce confidence and sense of equality as people learn about their own world and the one beyond. And in a more connected India, this will only increase with time.

Political parties that see these changes in voting patterns, in the push for new policies and increased protest movements are changing their own campaign and governance styles quickly. They are realising that voters are changing — and television is exposing them to a world beyond their households. However, those who continue on the same path of caste politics, disregarding how the world around them is changing, are doomed to struggle — and possible failure.

Bhattacharya works with parliamentarians and is also writing a book about how young people can enter Indian politics

Source: Indian Express, 9/01/2017

Child marriage is a form of human trafficking

The world is fairly governed by reason and so are our institutions and laws. But, how can we permit the rape of a 16-year-old girl by a 40-year old man under the cover of marriage? Recently, the Supreme Court, in response to a PIL filed by the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), asked the government to protect children from sexual offences in marriage by addressing existing conflicts in the law.

In India, where even today, 47% of children are married before the age of 18 years, this is a big step forward. Child marriage is an understood phenomenon but the effects of it on young girls and their lives are relatively unknown to the public and policy makers. In a meeting with Bal Sarpanchs (elected child leaders) of several Bal-mitra grams (child-friendly villages) of Rajasthan, I came across more girls than boys, which is a sign of good things to come. However, almost all had come to this position because of their refusal to get married before 18.

Kavita, married at 5, fought mindsets and beliefs as she grew up and today at 16, she is in school. She has ensured all children in her village, regardless of caste and gender, are in school. Asked why she had decided to fight child marriage, she said: “My mind and body were not ready for it.” India has the fifth highest prevalence of child marriages in the world, with one in every three child brides being Indian. Moreover, 58% Indian women are married before they are 18, out of which 27% were married before they are 15.

Child marriage perpetuates the exploitation of health, rights and body of adolescent girls. This treatment of young girls is viewed as separate from human trafficking but in reality, it is a form of trafficking. I say this because child brides have no say in the arrangement and become the property of the man they are married to, who more often than not, makes a trade out of the circumstance and innocence of the young girl.

We also have the highest number of adolescent girls, worldwide, who give birth before they turn 18. Pregnancy remains a major contributor to maternal and child mortality, and to the cycle of ill-health and poverty. Whereas, the benefits of timely or in this case, delayed marriage and pregnancy are many, and come through lower health care cost of the family and more productivity in work.

The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (Posco), 2012, is a special Act formulated to provide for protection of all children, who by definition, is anyone under 18 years, from the offences of sexual assault, sexual harassment, etc., and to enforce the rights of children to safety, security and protection from sexual abuse and exploitation. Section 5 of the Act provides that whoever in a shared household with the child commits penetrative sexual assault is said to have committed aggravated penetrative sexual assault or rape. However, Exception 2 under section 375 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) states that sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under 15 years, is not rape.

A conjoint reading of the above provisions makes it apparent that where a child is below 15, even if she is a wife and is subjected to sexual intercourse by her husband, the provisions of Posco will apply, and the same will constitute aggravated penetrative sexual assault or rape and accordingly the Exception 2 to Section 375 cannot be of any recourse to the husband.

The anomaly arises when the child is under 18 but over 15. A child’s status as a child till she is 18, otherwise guaranteed by the State, is denied to her once she is forcefully or otherwise wed.

Moreover, provisions of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, show that a child who has been forced into marriage and in all probability would be subjected to intercourse, only has the option of rescuing herself from the illegal relationship if she applies to the district court through her guardian or next friend, along with a Child Marriage Prohibition Officer.

How can the law expect a young child to find a guardian, usually the one who is responsible for getting her married in the first place, or another individual as a next friend to pull her out of this arrangement?

She has no other recourse against the offences committed against her despite her being a child. However, with the compulsory application of Posco, the child will have a recourse in law, in as much as sexual intercourse committed against her would qualify as “rape”.

For years, we have fought for legal deterrents which will be applicable to all children without any exception. The decision of the apex court to direct the government to clear this conflict between the IPC and the Posco Act within four months will form the basis of the fight against the sexual exploitation of girls in the name of child marriage.

The singular aim of the law is to protect the weak and vulnerable, and ensure speedy and effective delivery of justice. The time has come for the government and society at large to unite and ensure the end of child marriage and fulfil the promise of quality education to all children.

Kailash Satyarthi is Nobel Peace Laureate and founder, Bachpan Bachao Andolan

Source: Hindustan Times, 9-01-2017