Solidarity and Condolences to the CPI (Maoist): Naxalbari Will Never Die!
On May 21st 2025, in the forest of Chhattisgarh, a fascist raid took place which martyred 28 cadres of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). Among the martyred comrades was Basavaraju, General Secretary and a committed fighter of the PLGA (People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army). This is not only a loss to the revolution in India, but also a loss for the Communist movement as a whole. Since the news has spread, there have been numerous statements of condolence and solidarity across the world, from the Philippines, Turkey, Switzerland, Britain, Greece, Afghanistan, Nepal, etc. We in Liberation Caucus also express our condolences for the 28 martyred comrades and state our unwavering solidarity to the ongoing revolution in India. We seek to learn from and follow the example of dedication and service to the masses set by revolutionaries like Comrade Basavaraju, among all the valuable lessons given to us by the movement in India.
While a host of organizations bear the name of Communist Party of India, today it the CPI (Maoist) which holds the revolutionary line in the most populous country in the world. How did this come to be?
In 1967, in the rural village of Naxalbari, West Bengal, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (still a major political party in India today) held power. Despite this, there were still intense contradictions between the landlords in the region and the poor peasant population. The CP(M) (CPI Marxist) was notably made up of bureaucratic intellectuals who had built careers as politicians and were out of touch with the masses. Without support from the party, the peasants in Naxalbari decided to organize themselves and set up Peasant Committees to strategize on how to struggle against the landlords. It was on March 3rd of 1967 that the Peasant Committees under the command of comrade Charu Majumdar decided to move on the landlords and start seizing land. In the month of March, many plots of land were seized along with food grains, arms, animals, tools, etc. As progress was made, the movement started to grow and new Committees began popping up.
Rather than support the uprising, the CP(M) government in the region exposed themselves and their revisionist line by mobilizing police and facilitating paramilitaries to crush the uprising in a repressive operation which left many peasant organizers and sympathetic Party members dead. The CP(M) also ruined their relationship with the Communist Party of China, who supported the uprising as they were leading the Cultural Revolution in their own country. This was just the start of the new movement, and to this day Maoist cadres in India are still known as 'Naxalites' in recognition of the Naxalbari Uprising being a focal point for the movement.
While holding a progressive line supporting the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China, the formation resulting from the Naxalbari Uprising was not yet Maoist. Maoism as we know it today had not yet become a formal current in the Communist movement. Instead, the emerging Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), of which Comrade Basavaraju was a dedicated cadre, became one of many formations which over the decades would struggle against revisionism, opportunism and co-optation in the Communist movement in India. A struggle that would be often violent in a country with sharp class, ethnic, national, social, religious and caste divisions which sell-out 'communist' parties would only be too enthusiastic to use to repress those who carried a revolutionary line.
Despite the challenges, in 2004 under the red banner of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, many of these groups came together to form the CPI (Maoist) and righteously steered India even further on the red road, blossoming one of the strongest revolutionary movements in the world. Setting up and rapidly growing base areas in the 'Red Corridor' of India, the CPI (Maoist) would set an example to be praised by the world proletariat. Even despite numerous army and paramilitary operations the party and its armed wing, the PLGA, stand strong and have continued to grow and make theoretical developments which they have provided to the Maoist movement across the world to learn from.
Always having solid theoretical grounding, the CPI (Maoist) has demonstrated principled positions to the rights of the oppressed in India struggling against class, gender, religious and caste oppression building a strong base among the Adavasi (rural indigenous) populations in the Red Corridor and supporting the national liberation of Kashmir. Which we remember, as the fascist Modi regime pushes aggressively on several fronts, carrying out 'Operation Sindoor' in a series of back and forth attacks with Pakistan leaving Kashmir and Panjab in the crossfire. Looking outside of the immediate region, the CPI (Maoist) also distinguished itself by proclaiming full solidarity with the resistance in Palestine.
As the comrades themselves put it:
“This is not the first time that the Maoist movement in India has lost an eminent leader. This is not the first time the ruling classes gloated over it. Soon enough it proved to be temporary. Soon enough they were forced to once again acknowledge the Maoist movement as the biggest threat to their rule...That is what is going to be repeated, again and again and again… till the revolution wins. Memories of the life and martyrdom of comrade Basavaraj and countless others will always remain an inspiration for the people, the youth, of this country.”
As the revolution in India marches forward, so too do we in the Liberation Caucus in our own struggles against revisionism, opportunism and rightism at home, while also organizing and uniting with progressive groups to fight the fascist reactionary currents in the belly of the beast. We constantly look to the example set by the comrades in India not just for inspiration, but also for guidance as we apply the lessons they teach to our local conditions.
Naxalbari will never die!
Long live the memory of Comrade Basavaraju, martyr of the Indian people, hero of the international proletariat!
Long Live the CPI (Maoist) and the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army!
Long Live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!
