The fight to bring healthcare and revolution to India’s cities

In the context of revolutionary war in the Indian countryside,
communist forces are grappling with how to ignite and lead people’s mass struggle in the cities. Krishanu Mandal makes an argument for opening one such front of struggle in the demands for healthcare, fighting against cruel profiteering in the medical industry, and reviving a mass urban revolutionary movement.

While the CPI (Maoist) is busy now defending itself and its mass base of poor agricultural classesand tribals against a relentless and violent attack by the Indian state, a revival of revolutionary democratic work in the urban areas is an extremely serious issue. Once again we emphasize that a careful reorganization of the entire matrix of the working class and democratic mass movements in urban area is necessary and such a complementary movement comprising such concrete mass-political actions in the sphere of health might be one component of that.

Thanks to Joe for the intro, and for alerting us to this article. It originally appeared at Sanhati.

The Aftermath of the AMRI Tragedy: Some Related Thoughts on Democratic Work in Urban Areas of India

by Krishanu Mandal

January 5, 2012

This article provides a case for mass-political movements around health-care and expropriation of private health-care sector as one component of the revival of revolutionary democratic work in urban area.

The gruesome death of about 90 people, mostly critically ill and infirm patients, due to the fire at the AMRI (AdvancedMedicare and Research Institute) Hospital in Kolkata, India in the second week of December has made international news. This has been followed by a comparably gruesome death of more than 170 people by drinking poison-laced country-liquor in a region of southern West Bengal a few days later. The response of the common people to these incidents stimulates some introductory thoughts on diversification of democratic work in urban areas of India.