By Chinmoy Banerjee
The “Life in Struggle Celebration” in honour of Hari Sharma was held successfully in Surrey, BC over the weekend of November 14-15.
On Saturday, November 14 four scholars and activists from Michigan, North Carolina, California, and Vancouver, British Columbia presented papers at a well-attended conference on “Imperialism, Socialism and Peoples’ Struggles Today” at the Newton Community Recreation Centre in Surrey.
Dr. Dongping Han spoke of his experiences growing up during the Cultural Revolution in China and emphasized the need to challenge the misinformation about it that has been established as truth by the Western media. For himself and millions of peasants and workers in China the Cultural Revolution was enormously empowering, giving them a voice and opportunities they never had and creating a sense of community and solidarity by breaking down the divides of urban/rural, educated/uneducated, and elite/lowly. By following the course of capitalist development and discarding the gains of the Cultural Revolution China was building up a great force of dissatisfaction against its growing inequality and social injustice that would become explosive. The riots in Xinjiang in 2009 were a symptom of this phenomenon.
Dr. Robert Weil also spoke on the Cultural Revolution but focused on the need to reclaim it for the future of socialism in the face of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the turn to capitalism in China. Mao had initiated the Cultural Revolution to take the Chinese revolution forward at a moment when its future was jeopardized by the forces of capitalism within the Communist Party of China. But despite its many achievements the Cultural Revolution was defeated because the resistance and manipulation of those opposed to the policies of Mao entrenched in the party and state, lack of organization, failure of institution building, infighting, and excesses made it possible for the very forces it was supposed to counter to emerge as the savior of Chinese society. Mao’s project is alive today in the Philippines, Nepal, and India, where it has been adapted to include new perspectives and concerns and leftists should learn from the Cultural Revolution to unite in solidarity to achieve a socialist world since it was no longer possible to think of creating socialism in one country.
Dr. Pao-yu Ching argued that the world was facing an unprecedented crisis in agriculture. This was brought about by the colonial arrangement by which lands were subjected to ecological damage by plantations for the production of cash crops for the metropolis. The separation of agricultural production from the food needs of the producer created an unnatural state by breaking the natural connection between agricultural labour and the need for food. This break with the natural was reinforced by the capitalist development that made food into a commodity, merely a product for sale in the market. In the last few decades Imperialist forces have led this unnatural and destructive separation to a crisis: weak bourgeoisies in the newly independent countries have become sharers of Imperialist robbery of their lands and peasants have been increasing deprived of their lands, livelihood, and food. The current regime of agricultural production devastates the environment, produces in the interest of metropolitan and elite consumption and corporate profit, creates crippling dependency, and leads to large scale suicide among farmers and massive hunger and malnutrition. For peasantry in the developing world the struggle against Imperialism and the struggle for socialism are the same.
Dr. Mordecai Briemberg argued that there is a continuous narrative of Canadian imperialist practice from the 19th century to the present that is at odds with the popular image among Canadians of Canada as a well-intentioned peace-keeper and a global force for humanitarianism, symbolized by the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson. Nationalists opposing the current war-making by the Canadian government in Afghanistan present it as an exception to the presumed pattern. But Canada has made military, diplomatic, and economic ‘contributions’ to the imperialist world order from Sudan in the late 19th century, to Korea, the Middle East, and Vietnam in the 20th century, and Yugoslavia, Haiti, Iraq and Afghanistan in the 21st . Pearson was ‘honoured’ for his Christian Zionism and his facilitation of the transfer of control of the Middle East from Britain to the US following the Suez invasion by Britain, France and Israel. Canada’s imperial role in Afghanistan is not an exceptional practice but only a more exposed one. Imperial conquest requires the ideological construction of “noble” purpose and dehumanized enemy, and here Canada has made its ‘contribution’ through racist practices and the construction of the 21st century doctrine of the “responsibility to protect.” Therefore, the main guide to struggle in this country is opposition to Canadian imperialism, not national emancipation from US control..
The presentations were followed by a vigorous exchange of ideas.
The celebration concluded with a party at the Grand Taj Banquet Hall in Surrey on Sunday, November 15 at which many people from the community, including Charan Gill, Raj Chouhan, Sarabjit Hundal, Harinder Mahil, Sunil Sharma, Chelliah Premrajah, Sadhu Binning, Ajmer Rode, Promod Puri, Robert Weil, Mordecai Briemberg, Jerry Zaslove and Dr. H. Fox (Hari Sharma’s physician) paid respect to Hari Sharma’s contributions to the community, his kindness to many individuals, and his fineness as a photographer and writer of short stories in Hindi.
Paul Binning contributed a bhangra dance by his students. Amrit Mann presented a gidda dance by her students and a dance about male-female relationship she had choreographed. The cultural presentations were greatly appreciated.
Kinda Garcha, lawyer for Hari Sharma, announced the creation of Hari Sharma Foundation.
The book commemorating this occasion, Celebrating Life in Struggle: A Tribute to Hari Sharma, has been published by Daanish Books of New Delhi in India and is available from www.daanishbooks.com. In the Vancouver area, it could be obtained from Café Kathmandu, 2779 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. Or by writing to the Organizing Committee; Hari_Sharma_at_75@shaw.ca.