The Struggle Continues

monutomar03@gmail.com

June 5, 2026

The ruling class uses ideological and armed repression to rule society. If ideological repression is carried out through the educational institutions, newspapers, radio, etc., owned by the ruling class, the police, CRP, army, etc., are used for armed repression… Ideological repression, is used to control the minds of the exploited classes, while armed repression is used when the masses can no longer be kept peaceful with the help of lies fed to them through the organs of ideological repression. Thus, though ideological and armed repression take different forms, they serve a common purpose: to help the ruling class to continue its exploitation of the toiling people.

It is clear that an exploiter class would prefer to rule with the help of ideological repression rather than through armed repression. Because, ideological repression, is a system based on lies which in effect condi-tions the worker to believe that the exploitation which he suffers is necessary, natural and there fore does not require to be overthrown. On the other hand, when armed repression is used to crush strikes and agita-tions the worker is taught by lathis and bullets that the rule of the exploiters can only be ended through force.

It follows that in a country where the ruling class is strong and where the conscious, militant, organised movement against it is weak, the exploiters will try to rule mainly by relying on ideological repression.

In such a situation, the political parties of the ruling class, emerge as the leaders of the masses. By attacking each others’s performance while in power, they gain votes. It is natural that the ruling class party out of power has a better chance to gain votes since it is ‘attacking’ the existing rule, and promising, a better government if returned to power-a promise for the future. The ruling party, on the other hand, has to defend its rule which, precisely because it is based on exploitation and oppression,can never, as a general rule, be liked by the masses. Thus, for example, the ruling party cannot defend the rise in sugar prices, while the party out of power can attack it and promise a price reduction if voted to power-a promise which it needs to fulfil only after the elections are over and the votes are counted.

This tamasha, as we said earlier, is possible only because of the ideological repression in the country: only because the militant, conscious movement against the ruling class is weak.

The massive victory of Indira Gandhi in the recent elections is, thus, the result of these factors. In addition, she was helped by the non-performance and the split in the Janata Party.

The electoral triumph of Indira Gandhi has led to two developments in the working class movement. While a section characterises her as the main danger to the masses and works for an alliance of all parties including other ruling class parties to oppcse her, another section points to her majority and says that the masses who voted for her did it because they were conscious and that this consciousness will prevent her from carrying out acts of repression against the people. Both these viewpoints, in our opinion, are wrong. The first section remembers her oppressive acts of the past, and forgets the violence of the other ruling class parties with which it wants an anti-Congress (1) alliance. This section remembers the crushing of the 1974 Railway Strike and the Emergency, but forgets the massacres at Belchi, Bailadilla and Swadeshi Cotton Mills in Kanpur. The second section, on the other hand. believes that the people who voted for Indira Gandhi are conscious enough to prevent her from carrying out repressive acts and forgets that a majority did not prevent her from declaring the Emergency and unleash terror in Turkman Gate, Muzaffarnagar and Sultanpur.

The truth is, only a conscious, organised and independent movement led by the working class can defend the people and defeat the rule of the capitalists and landlords. The price of sugar which continues to rise despite the promises of Indira Gandhi shows us that the economy of exploitation itself explo-des the lies fed by the machinery of ideological oppression. To use this situation and take the mass movement forward by practicing the politics of struggle is our task.