Читать онлайн "International Maoism in the Developing World" - Alexander Robert Jackson - RuLit

However, a U.S. State Department source reported that the BCP-ML had attacked the “imperialist” policies of Peking for its support of Pakistan. That source also reported that during the conflict the party “mounted some effective guerrilla actions” and was the main guerrilla force in one sector, and Toaha “personally gained considerable local power.”[571]

Even subsequent to achievement of independence by Bangladesh, Toaha was reported as arguing that it had been established by a “counter-revolutionary conspiracy hatched by the imperialists and Indian expansionists.” Toaha was said to maintain “contact with the dispersed, shattered ‘Naxalite’ organization of Maoist Indian Communists… and there has been speculation that BCP-ML… continued to favor the creation of a single, independent ‘Red’ Bengal state, combining Bangladesh with the Indian state of West Bengal.”[572]

After the ascension to power of General Ziaur Rahman, his government “tilted toward Peking,” and as a consequence, the BCP-ML “supported the military government’s stance on almost all issues… including Ziaur’s decision to postpone the elections.” John F. Copper reported that the BCP-ML’s “membership grew in 1977, though it is uncertain how large the party is because it publishes no figures on its size or budget.” Copper added, “It is still small and there seems little chance that it will become a mass party in the near future.”[573]

The BCP-ML continued to prosper in 1978. It was reported that in December 1977, “China formally recognized the BCP-ML-marking the first time that Peking had formally recognized any communist party on the sub-continent since Lin Piao’s death. China continued to maintain ties with the BCP-ML, but gave a higher priority to its official contacts with Dacca because of the minor role of the BCP-ML in Bangladesh politics.”[574]

In March 1978, President Ziaur Rahman, in preparation for elections, formed a new Nationalist Democratic Party into which several existing groups, including the National Awami Party, merged, but the BCP-ML did not become part of the new group. Rather, in August it joined with two other parties to establish the People’s Democratic Front. It proclaimed its objective as being to “unite all patriotic democratic forces to launch a democratic movement in the country.” The Front demanded an end to a U.S.-Bangladesh Peace Corps agreement but not to the India-Bangladesh friendship treaty, and the suspension of the constitution enacted under Sheikh Mujib.[575] The pro-Moscow party was particularly critical of this Front, calling it “anti-Soviet, anti-Indian and anti-BCP.”[576]

When the 1979 elections were finally held, Mohammed Toaha was the only Communist of any description to win a seat in Parliament.[577]

The Banglar Communist Party

The Banglar Communist Party, originally called the Purba Banglar Communist Party, or Communist Party of East Bengal (also referred to as the East Bengal Communist Party-Marxist Leninist), or PBCP (ML), established in 1968, was led by its Chairman, Deben Lal Sikdar, and Secretary-General, Abdul Bashar. This party strongly supported the movement for independence of East Bengal (Bangladesh). Justus van der Kroef reported that “It participated actively in the independence struggle, establishing at one time a ‘free zone’ with its own courts and local administration, presumably dominated by its adherents, in Rajaha district in Northern Bangladesh.”

Once the independence of Bangladesh had been achieved, the PBCP-ML did not go underground, as did some of the other Maoist groups, or organize guerrilla activities against the Bangladesh government. Professor van der Kroef reported, “Indeed, its spokesmen profess to support the present program of the Rahman government.”[578] During the first elections in Bangladesh, in 1973, the PBCP-ML joined the Action Committee, a coalition organized by Maulana Bhashani of the National Awami Party, and was given three places on the Action Committee’s list of candidates. However, none of its nominees was elected.[579]

The Bangladesh Communist Party (Leninist)

This party, the BCP-L, emerged during the struggle for independence, under the leadership of Rashed Khan Menon, described as “a popular leftist student leader.” Menon had belonged to the Communist Party of East Pakistan (MarxistLeninist) of Mohammed Toaha, but when Toaha assumed a somewhat equivocal attitude toward the independence struggle, Menon broke with that organization and formed his own.[580] In the beginning, at least, it was reported to have some influence in the small organized labor movement of Bangladesh.[581] The Bangladesh Communist Party (Leninist) was also said to have “links with the Naxalite Communist Party of India.”[582]

According to Rounaq Jahan, the BCP-L “originated in 1971 during the liberation movement when five pro-Chinese groups joined in a Somony (consultative committee) in a bid to unify the leftist forces of the country behind the movement. The BCP-L consists of four of the five groups who originally formed the committee.”[583]

After independence was achieved, the BCP-L functioned openly and was said to have participated in the 1973 elections.[584] However, we have no information concerning how it fared at the polls.

At the time that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared the formation of a single party in Bangladesh in January 1975, the BCP-L was reported as being “divided in their attitude toward the single party.” After the August coup, the BCP-L leaders “escaped imprisonment.” However, it was noted that “the leadership of the BCP-L’s mass front, the JSD, had been in police custody since early 1974. After 3 November 1975, some of the JSD leaders were set free and then rearrested within a few days.”[585]

When President Ziaur Rahman called elections in 1977, the Bangladesh Communist Party-Leninist, which had been operating semi-clandestinely after the second military coup of 1975, came out into the open. However, there is no indication that it participated in organizing the Nationalist Democratic Party set up by the President.[586]

Proletarian Party of East Bengal

The Proletarian Party of East Bengal (known both by its English initials as the PPEB, and its Bengali initials as PBSP) was established under the leadership of Siraj Sikdar. It was organized in 1971, and was reported as being “composed mostly of new members. It participated in the independence struggle of Bangladesh.”[587]

Once independence had been obtained, the PBSP was strongly opposed to the government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. It was said in 1973 that “it advocates violent overthrow of the bourgeois regime of Mujib.”[588] Two years later, Justus van der Kroef reported that the PBSP was “sometimes called the ‘Have not Party,’” and that it “claims to be engaged in an avowed ‘national liberation’ struggle against the AL-dominated government and is said to maintain relations with the underground Maoist extremists in the Calcutta area.”[589]

The PBSP strongly opposed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s efforts in January 1975 to organize a single party in Bangladesh. A bit later in that year, “PBSP lost its founder-leader, Siraj Sikdar… when he was imprisoned and killed by Bangladesh police. What impact his death would have on the party’s rapidly growing support was unclear. Since Sikdar was the party’s main theoretician and himself a romantic figure, his loss would certainly reduce the party’s support particularly among urban youths.” It was reported that the party’s position on the August and November 1975 military coups was “not clear.”[590]