In Protest of the Brutal Incident of the 16th Dec gang rape
There
are thousand and one reasons to rebel, and only one amongst those is enough for
us to start making preparations!
From resistance march ahead towards
revolutionary change!
Sisters! Comrades!
The courageous girl
who had been bravely battling for life for the past 14 days breathed her last
on 29th December. The spontaneous anger of people, especially
youth, burst on streets once this incident came to light. Thousands of people
have expressed their anger by gathering and uniting at Jantar Mantar and India
Gate in Delhi. Undoubtedly, this anger had been cumulating in our heads for a
long time now. What this incident did was to spill out the already over
brimming cup of our patience and consequently most of us took to streets. The
Sheela Dikshit government in Delhi as well as the Union government has now
assumed a defensive stance. Throughout the country, the demand for death
penalty for rape is being put forth. However, the truth is that the rapists
easily get away in 74 percent rape cases. Therefore, in the first place, it
must be ensured that at the very least, the rapists are convicted as well as
punished. And secondly, the issue of punishment comes later; the
most pertinent question is to understand as to why incidents of rape are
increasing by the day and what forces are responsible for this trend?
Since 16th December,
right from the government to all opposition electoral parties have shed
crocodile tears over the incident. However, these are the same parties who gave
tickets to 286 men charged with crimes against women in the last Lok Sabha
elections. BJP leader Sushma Swaraj had already declared the victim of this
heinous act as a 'living corpse' even before she died! But just yesterday, a
girl was raped in a BJP MLA’s office in Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh. Every
electoral party can pride itself in having criminals charged with rape,
corruption, murder and so on. However, now members of these same criminal
electoral parties are discussing amongst themselves about strengthening the
provisions of law against rape, installation of CCTV cameras in public
transport, or tightening of security as the only solutions for this problem.
Clearly, to expect any safety, justice or equality from them in the first place
itself would be foolishness. However what needs to be thought over is whether
rape or for that matter any other anti-women crime is merely a law and order or
safety problem? Why do crimes against women happen in such large numbers at
all? Definitely, for a heinous crime like rape, the punishment should be
extremely strict and harsh. Especially In this case, the guilty should be
immediately as well as strictly punished by setting up a fast track court.
Conviction rates in anti-women crimes are very low already. Therefore, in all
such cases, fast track courts must be set up and perpetrators be punished
swiftly and strictly. This is because, in such crimes the psyche of easily
getting away is always playing at the back of the perpetrators' minds. However,
even after repeated calls for death penalty for rapes in wake of the 16th
December episode, have the incidents of rapes come to a halt? On the contrary,
incidents of rapes have been reported almost daily from different parts of the
country repeatedly since then.
Friends, in our opinion
there are three major reasons responsible for the ever-increasing rise in the
crimes against women. Post 1990, as a consequence of the new economic policies
of liberalisation-privatisation, a neo-rich class completely immersed in the
culture of “Eat-Drink-Enjoy” has come into existence. This new class believes
that it can do anything and everything with the power of money. This same small
class, blinded by money, harbours the mentality of consuming the 'commodity'
called woman whose commodification has already been effected by the decadent
capitalist culture. To a large extent, this new class is responsible for crimes
against women. On the other hand, a lumpen degenerate petty class, too, has come
into existence which has crossed all limits of the capitalist
dehumanization, as is evident from the barbarity of the 16th December
incident. The third reason has been present for a long time and that is the
patriarchical mentality which permeates every single bit of our society. It
considers women as an object to be had and an instrument to procreate children
(that is to say, sons!), and thus, reinforces the anti-women psychology every
second.
Friends, today, it won’t
be enough to vent out our anger, hatred or frustration. Along with asking for
women’s safety, safe public transport system with CCTV & GPS system in
buses on an urgent basis, we will have to understand that this problem would
not be completely resolved through patchwork. Along with these demands for
immediate reforms, we must start the long battle for uprooting the entire
social-political-economic structure that has turned human beings into
commodities; where for the profit of a few, this exploitative system does not
even hesitate to sell out in the markets, flesh of common toiling masses,
women, children, dalits, and tribals; and where children and women are
sacrificed on the altar of the lust of the neo-rich class. If you are asking
for anything less than this, then believe us, you won’t get anything.
Therefore, we will have to offer a revolutionary alternative to this plundering
system which is essentially anti-women, anti-worker, repressive and
exploitative. However, this alternative cannot be achieved through any
electoral party (not even if it calls itself a party of 'Aam Aadmi'!) but a new
revolutionary organization and a revolutionary movement. To build such a
system, we will have to gear ourselves from today itself. Only protests won’t
help. A revolutionary ideology and a revolutionary organization are needed to
march ahead towards revolution! And to understand such an ideology and build
such a revolutionary alternative, youth, especially young women will have to
come forward because women are victims of dual slavery: of capitalism and of
patriarchy!
However, until such a
system is built, we cannot sit idle. We will have to fight for our rights in
our day-to-day lives; struggle for immediate reforms; take to streets to
reclaim our dignity and rights! But sisters and comrades! For this too we will
have to unite in organizations, otherwise this immediate upsurge will subside
once our anger gets expressed and nothing will change. Therefore, throw the
electoral politics into the garbage-bin! However, do not be prejudiced towards
politics itself. As opposed to electoral politics, build your own alternative
of revolutionary politics. We hereby call upon all our sisters and comrades to
come forward to build a revolutionary alternative and revolutionary
organization. Come, lets give a direction to our protests. Come, lets not
merely vent out our anger and frustration, rather, choke this entire
exploitative, anti-worker, anti-women, anti-Dalit, misanthropic system itself,
through our unity and organization; come, lets move ahead towards building a new
socio-economic and political system!
Inquilab
Zindabad!
University
Community for Democracy and Equality
Issued
on 29th December 2012
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