Inaugural Speech of the General Secretary to the 10th Congress
(Unofficial translation)
Comrade President
Central committee leaders
Respected comrades from fraternal parties
Distinguished guests
Esteemed party veterans
Delegates and observer comrades
Journalist and friends in media
Dear comrades, brothers and sisters,
I welcome you all to the inaugural session of the 10th Congress of the Communist Party of Bangladesh. On behalf of the Central Committee of the Party, I thank you all and greet you with a Red Salute!
From the rostrum of this congress I express revolutionary greetings to the workers, peasants, agricultural workers, toiling masses and the people of Bangladesh. Fighting against all types of misery and adverse condition, they have made the existence of our country possible by their hard labor, innovation and dedication. They have made it possible to somehow keep moving the wheel of the society and economy. May the struggling people of the country be victorious!
On behalf of this great event, I express my heartiest and fraternal greetings to the people all over the world, who are fighting against the imperialism-exploitation-deprivation-oppression and for peace-freedom-democracy and progress. May the working class and people of the world be victorious! May the struggle for the emancipation of mankind be victorious!
From the rostrum of the historical 10th Congress of the Party, we remember with deep respect those comrades and friends of this country as well as of all the countries of the world, who have left us after having spent their lives with great contribution for peace, prosperity, democracy, fraternity, justice, progress and emancipation of mankind. Remembering all deceased comrades, companion and friends, we are announcing with determination- we not let your struggle, dedication and sacrifice go in vein.
Friends,
The people of the country are now facing multi-faced problems and crisis. Along with these crises, the additional crisis is- the way to get rid of these crises is not visible to the mass people till now. Beyond the dark tunnel of misery the sign of light is very dim. So, people including working class, are deeply frustrated with their sufferings. This frustration is turning into anger. But, this agitation is spontaneous and unorganized. The forces of progress and democracy are not being able to make the enraged people organized to a required level to give it the shape of an alternative political force. So, in many cases, this frustration and spontaneous agitations are being used by the reactionary forces of home and abroad. So, the risk of being gripped imprisoned in the vicious circle of these problems and crises is increasing.
Decades after decades, the people of the country are becoming `fed up’ with the rulers and the way they have been ruling the country. They want to come out of this situation. But, the sign of becoming free from this situation and the presence of adequate and visible force for bringing this about is not visible to them. From the political-economical-social perspective of the country, this is the main challenge for us. The challenge, which is predominant for the toiling people of the country, is also the main challenge for the Communist Party. To find the way to this challenging duty is the main agenda of our 10th Congress.
Comrades,
The `Mohajot’ (Grand alliance) government came into the power with the promise of decreasing the price hike. But, in the last four years, the price of essentials increased rapidly instead of decreasing. The price hike is becoming uncontrolled. Government is giving the excuse of uncontrollable forces of demand-supply, international market price and market economy. But, the government did not start the rationing system, as they have promised. They did not introduce powerful, efficient and non-corrupted public distribution system. Moreover, they increased the price of petrol, diesel, water, gas, including the increase of the electricity price in six occasions. Compared to that, the income of the middle class and the poor people have not increased. On the other hand, a few people are being given the opportunity to become the owner of huge money and property. The mountain of wealth is being amassed by plundering and fraud. These things are being done with the collaboration of the high level of government. You can imagine the high magnitude of corruption and plundering by observing the share market scandal, fraud of Jubok and Destiny, Padma bridge scandal, Hallmark-Sonali bank scandal, land grabbing, smuggling, commission business etc. According to the Finance minister himself, the amount of black money is about three-fourth of the visible economy. Economy, politics, society is now being controlled by the black money owners. There is an ocean of poverty, but on the other hand, few people have unimaginable amount of money and wealth. In the same state, now we can see two separate economies, two separate societies and actually two different countries. For these reasons, many kinds of crises and mismanagement including liquidity crisis, investment problem and fluctuation of interest rates etc have arisen in our country.
Beside these big events of plundering, bribe-corruption, admission commerce, seat commerce etc have spread dangerously all over the country. These have lead to killing, kidnapping, women-torturing, maintaining of armed cadre force, emergence of godfathers and many types of criminal acts. Clashes and anarchy in the educational institutions are increasing. By converting education, health etc to commodity, the commercialization of society has been carried to extreme levels. For the need of amassing wealth through plunder, the nature, environment, ecosystem etc are being destroyed. Because of the greed of plunderers of the present generation, the existence of future generation is being put under fatal danger.
Democracy, democratic rights and democratic institutions are being weakened. The constitution is not being returned to the spirit and course of the liberation war. By-clauses and systems inducted unlawfully by Mostaq, Zia and Ershad are still present in many chapters of the constitution. The trade union rights of the workers are being restrained. Industrial police have been introduced to repress the struggle of the workers. Killing- `Cross fire’- Abduction by the law enforcement forces is being continued. The places for public meetings in Dhaka city and other cities have been made forbidden for meeting. Barbarous police attacks on processions and protests are taking place.
The market economy has given birth to the `market politics’. Politics has become sick due to commercialization and criminalization. With the help of national and international plunders, the evil politics of corruption is dominating over the politics of ideology. The political polarization circle, centered on the two bourgeois parties AL and BNP, are carrying out this evil practices of politics. With the help of these two parties, the evil politics has come to be the mainstream politics. The political reality of bi-party polarization we are facing is the product of political-engineering of the national-international ruling elite. Those who control our country from behind the curtains by remote controls have built this system, so that both the government and the opposition always remain loyal to them. By such a method they plan to ensure that the country is always under their control.
The domination of imperialism, especially US imperialism over our country has increased. Even, US Special force, Marine Force, members of intelligence agencies etc come in and out of our country regularly with many kinds of excuses and thus they have ensured a kind of permanent presence in Bangladesh. They have gripped Bangladesh with many secret treaties like HANA, SOFA etc, US 7th fleet is looking for opportunity to enter and stay in the Bay of Bengal. They are increasing pressure for the permanent presence of US marine force in our country. They are forcing the government to sign TICFA , trying to tie us economically with the chain of exploitation by grabbing our oil, gas and natural resources. There are serious charges of corruption against Bangladesh Government in `Padma bridge’ affair. The same type of complain has been raised against the World Bank also regarding this affair. Using excuses of corruption, WB stopped the funding of Padma Bridge, and now they have announced to start the funding again with new conditions which are very adverse and disgraceful for Bangladesh. The sabotaging activities of Pakistan and their intelligence have not been stopped. A lot of problems remain unsolved with India like water sharing of common rivers including Tista river, Tipaimukh dam, border killings, maritime boundary, exchange of enclaves, `Tin Bigha’ corridor, trade imbalance etc. Imperialism is always trying to strengthen their conspiracies by instigating the enmity between the neighboring countries.
Dear friends,
Imperialism is now targeting the Asia-pacific area as their major place for activities. They announced that, 60 percent of their overseas naval forces will be deployed in this area. With the strategy of `Stop China’, their tactics is the encirclement of China. Though there are some differences between the interest of India and US, they have succeeded to a large extent to draw in India in their strategy. In this condition, it has become easier for Imperialism to draw Bangladesh to their clutches completely and they are desperately trying for that. Not only in East and South Asia, Imperialism has become the prime enemy for the people of the world. Imperialism is performing aggressive activities with some theories like those of neo-colonialism, like `limited sovereignty’, `regime change’, `pre emptive attack’ etc.
With the help of unity of anti-imperialism force and their combined action, we have to defeat the main enemy for the mankind. Communist party of Bangladesh is not only inspired by the true patriotic feelings, it is also motivated by the spirit of revolutionary internationalism. Our party will continue to play its role as a contingent of the ongoing great international struggle for emancipation of mankind.
Brothers and Sisters,
Three million people gave their blood for the independence of the country. The dream they had dreamt, the dream of directing this country on the basis of principles of Socialism, Democracy, Secularism and Nationalism, has been mostly stolen away. The country is plagued by exploitation, poverty, discrimination and crimes. The independence and sovereignty of the country is in danger of being sold away to imperialism. The responsibility for this goes to the military dictatorships which ruled for a long time and the elected non-military government led by the two bourgeoisie parties AL and BNP for longer periods of time. They had ruled the country along the path of plundering capitalism dependant on imperialism. The inevitable consequence of this path is the ever increasing burden of problems and crises. The leading bourgeoisie party of the liberation war, AL, has abandoned the spirit and path of liberation movement in many aspects. The politics of BNP was outside of this spirit from its inception and still remain unchanged. Two bourgeoisie parties can abandon the spirit of liberation movement completely; but the working class and their Communist Party of Bangladesh will fight with their last drop of blood to establish the spirit and path of our glorious liberation struggle.
Dear comrades and friends,
People of the country have suffered enough distress. The limit of their patience is being shattered. They want to come out from this intolerable pain. For this, it is essential to change the plundering capitalist system and establish the path of liberation war, which means to advance the country towards socialism for the interest of poor-toiling people along with the lower and middle stratum of people. For this it is required to fundamentally change the existing state policy thoroughly. On the other hand it is also necessary to bring to an end to the alternative cyclic rule of the bourgeoisie political parties and to establish the government of a left-democratic alternative force. To overcome the crises of the country, it is necessary to bring about a fundamental and organized revolutionary change of the existing social and political system. For this, we have to build up new wave of class and mass movements. Beside this, we have to unify and strengthen the left-democratic alternative forces. If we cannot fulfill this duty quickly, bankruptcy and failure of bourgeoisie governments may result in `One Eleven’ situation. At the same time, the danger of fundamentalist communal force like Jamaat-Shibir turning into reality cannot be ruled out.
There is no opportunity to keep the job of building a left democratic alternative a pending task. To save the country, there is no alternative to an `alternative’. This work is so important that, taking into account the real balance of the political forces of our country, the left democratic forces should try to establish a broader alternative circle along with honest, patriotic, democratic, liberal forces and persons. From this rostrum of 10th congress we call upon the left, democratic, liberal, patriotic forces and persons outside the AL and BNP circle for building up an alternative political polarization. For building up the united force, CPB and SPB have started to work together on the basis of 15 points. We are also asking the other left parties to be united. We are asking the people not to waste their time by trying to find `better of the evils’. Come with CPB. Join the left democratic force. On the basis of your genuine demands, for directing the state policy on the basis of liberation movement, to get rid of the imperialism-dependent plundering capitalism -create the new wave of mass movement. Communist Party is with you and will be with you.
The recent experiences have made us learn that, without a strong communist party it is not possible to build up the base of left unity and the left democratic alternative force. This alone can ensure a course free from right-opportunist and left deviation. Along with its duty of class struggle, Communist Party has also an important national duty to perform. So, CPB needs to be more strengthened today in its quality, mass connection and revolutionary spirit. This is the historic challenge in front of CPB now. The main topics of discussion in this Congress will be as to how we can strengthen the Party, mass organizations, class movements and mass movements.
If AL continues to rule, the country and people will be plunged further into crises. It will be more dangerous if BNP-Jamaat alliance comes back to power. This will be like ` out of the frying pan into the fire’. Now it is like `trouble’ (AL government). There is a chance of getting the `danger’ (BNP) back. The `hazard’ of One-Eleven is ready to take over. Above all, there is the risk of `disaster’ ( Jamaat-Shibir and communal terrorism). Keeping all these things in mind, we have to chart an appropriate and correct tactical road to advance for the left democratic alternative.
`The alarming bell of danger’ is ringing because of the bourgeoisie governments. We have to save the country. We have to save the people. For this reason, we have to get rid of bourgeoisie dictatorship. So, I would like to say like Nuruldin,` Wake up brothers! Where are you all? ’ Don’t be dismayed and afraid. We will surely bring our days closer to the day of hope.
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