Seventh International Arvind Memorial Seminar (29th December 2024 – 2nd January 2025 • Hyderabad)

Topic: Fascism in the Twenty-first Century: Elements of Continuity and Change and the Question of the Contemporary Proletarian Strategy

Friends, Comrades,
World capitalism is going through the first great depression of the Twenty-first century since 2006-07. In fact, from the 1970s itself, the world is going through a long recession. The speculative bubbles conjured up by fictitious capital in this period, proved to be short-lived and each of these bubbles gave even deeper crisis with every burst. The uncertainty and insecurity created due to the capitalist crises gave impetus to the reactionary forces owing to the weakness and dispersal of the subjective forces of revolution. It is precisely because of these factors that we have witnessed the rise of various far-right movements including fascism in various countries and few of them even rose to power or are in the process of rising to power. Relatively backward capitalist countries like India, Turkey, Brazil, Philippines could already be counted among such countries, but now the threat of advanced capitalist-imperialist countries like France, Austria, etc. joining the league of such countries, has clearly become real.
Fascism is not just any far-right reaction. It is a very particular kind of far-right reaction. In various sections of the communist movement of the world, the tendency of carelessly characterizing any kind of reaction as fascism has been prevalent. It is a harmful tendency. The reason being the fact that the task of formulating an effective proletarian strategy and general tactics against fascism cannot be fulfilled without understanding the particularity of fascism. Therefore, identifying the general or universal particularities of fascism and comprehending its differetia specifica vis-à-vis other far-right reactions is not merely an academic exercise for us, but a fundamental political question of central importance today.
Those who recognize the universal particularities of fascism, too, are faced with the question that whether there is any difference between the fascist and nazi movements and regimes that came into being in the first half of the Twentieth century on the one hand and the fascist rise and regimes in the present times on the other hand. Do we see elements of change in the fascist forces of present day, their modus vivendi, their modus operandi, the fascist movements of today and the method of their ascent to power? Or, do we see or try to see or wait to see a replica of fascist experiments of the Twentieth century in present cases of fascist rise and being unable to witness the exact similarities, reject the existence of fascist regimes? How do we see the Modi-Shah regime and the long process of the rise of fascism to power continuing since the mid-1980s? Is it a mere the ’dictatorship of the neoliberal capital’? Is it only a ‘authoritarian religious fundamentalist regime’? Is it merely an ‘autocratized regime’? Or is it a fascist regime, a new type of fascist regime with some significant differences from the fascist regimes, forces and movements of the Twentieth century? There is no consensus among the revolutionary communist forces, Marxist intellectuals and academics, researchers etc. of our country on this question. The need for a systematic dialog as well as debates and discussions on this question among them is deeply felt. It is precisely through such debates that we can approach the resolution of this most living and immediate political question of the present times: namely, developing a correct revolutionary strategy and general tactics against Modi-Shah regime.
Besides, our country does not exist in a vacuum. It is situated at a particular place in the chain of the present volatile imperialist-capitalist world. It goes without saying that the external factors cannot give rise to or determine the particular economic, political and social changes in a country in and by themselves. They influence the changes or dynamic emerging from and determined, in essence and in the main, by the internal factors in one or the other direction. They can accelerate them, obstruct them or immediately can also stall them or reverse them. However, in the last analysis, it is the internal factors which are the cause of the motion of any process, whereas the external factors determine the context or conditions of those changes and in this way play a facilitating role. Hence, we also need to understand the changes taking place around the world. We must understand the changes happening in Turkey, Brazil, Philippines, Russia, Middle-East region, the US, Britain or France. What is the character of the Erdogan regime? What is the character of Putin’s regime? How do we understand the character of the regime of Marcos Jr. and Duterte and similar forces? What is the nature of National Rally in France? What is the nature of forces like Golden Dawn of Greece? What kind of political tendency is represented by Bolsonaro in Brazil? How do we understand the Trump phenomenon in the US? What is the character of the regime that came into being following the Khomenei-led revolution in Iran? These are not living questions only for the revolutionaries and Marxist intellectuals and academics in the above-mentioned countries. They hold equal importance for us, too.
It is precisely for detailed and satisfactory dialogue, discussion and debates on these questions, that we are organizing the Seventh International Arvind Memorial Seminar from 29th December 2024 to 2nd January 2025 in Hyderabad. We extend heart-felt invitation to Communist groups, organizations and parties, Marxist intellectuals, progressive and anti-fascist academics, researchers and students of the country and the world to take part in this seminar. During these five days, the arrangement for accommodation and food will be made by the Arvind Memorial Trust. Those of you who wish to send their papers for this seminar, may submit an abstract of 500 words till 30th September 2024. The last date of sending the paper is 15th November 2024. You can send these to the email of the Arvind Institute of Marxist Studies given below and inform us on the given phone numbers/WhatsApp numbers. The information of accepted papers will be intimated to the senders before 1st December 2024. Besides, we invite everyone interested to participate in the debates and discussion during the seminar.
We hope that we will return with far clearer ideas after these five days. Even if we cannot find the answers to all the questions, we would humbly consider it a success if we are able to raise all the correct questions. After all, every scientific exploration commences with the identification of the problem and posing the correct questions. However, we also hope that we would be successful in accomplishing more than that.
Friends, comrades! Let us gather to deeply, patiently, seriously, elaborately and satisfactorily discuss and debate this most living and burning political question of our time. Let us learn from each other. Through this churning, we will definitely return to our fronts, our campuses and institutions (which themselves are nothing but fronts of struggle) with more advanced political ideas and understanding. We extend this invitation with this optimism that we will indeed succeed in fulfilling our humble objective.
With revolutionary greetings,
Organizing Committee
Seventh International Arvind Memorial Seminar (Hyderabad)
Arvind Institute of Marxist Studies
(an initiative of Arvind Memorial Trust)
Email : arvindtrust@gmail.com
Website : http://arvindtrust.org
Contact
Anand : 9971196111
Jayaprakash : 9871794036
Sreeja : 7013936466