THIS is a blind allegation, to say the least. We communists are active on all three levels, only we approach them from a class perspective. Since the questions of caste and nationality can be dealt only in a specifically Indian context and we have plans to publish a separate pamphlet for that, here we give only a brief general idea. Take the social justice movement. We are very much a part of it at the level of national politics, but more importantly at the grass roots, where under the communist party banner dalit peasants and agrarian labourers are up in arms for land, livelihood and dignity. But when in Bihar the latter come under fire from backward caste (especially Kurmi and Yadav) landlords and kulaks, and when such reprisals are found to break all previous records precisely during the reign of Laloo, the messiah of backwards, the process of class polarisation within backwards becomes self evident. Similarly when the country's first dalit chief minister Ms, Mayabati joins hands with the country's most aggressive Brahminical-communal party, the BJP, it only symbolises a process of upwardly mobile sections of backwards colluding with the ruling sections of forwards for a stake in slate power. Even the supreme court seems to recognise this economic stratification within backwards when it asks the creamy layer to be skimmed off the purview of reservations! And the process is not without its match at the bottom, where an increasing number of people from backward castes are daily losing their privileged positions and being galvanised into the class actions of workers and toiling peasants.

It is this essence of class dynamics in our society that we the Indian communists try to unravel, penetrating through the appearance of caste struggles. And we always integrate the struggle against Brahminism with the overall struggle against feudalism, of which the former is but an ideological-cultural expression. For only on these basis can we organise the movement for radically changing the entire socio-economic system and thereby eradicating casteism lock, stock and barrel.

Starling from this premise, we do support the Mondal Commission's recommendation for caste-based reservations as a progressive and democratic measure of limited significance. However, our own concept of social justice is much broader and extends to all those sections who are denied a decent living. Our primary emphasis therefore remains on land reforms, industrialisation and creation of more jobs. And our battle cry : Right to work as a fundamental right.