Jail Note Book of Shaheed Bhagat Singh

[Mandeep Kaur Guraya]

Page 42

A Revolution not Utopian

A radical revolution , the general amancipation of mankind , is not a utopian dream for Germany ; what is utopian is the idea of a partial, an exclusively political revolution , which would leave the pillar’s of the house standing.



" Great are great because

we are on knees

Let us Rise. "

 

[Mandeep Kaur Guraya]

Page 46

Democracy : ----

Democracy is theoratically a system of political and legal equality . But in concrete and practical operation it is false, for there can be no equality , not even in politics and before the law , so long as there is glaring in equality in economic power. So long as the ruling class owns the worker’s jobs and the press and the schools of country and all organs for the moulding and expression of public opinion; so long as it monopolise all trained public functionaries and disposes of unlimited funds to influence elections , so long as the laws are made by ruling class and the courts are presided over by members of that class, so long as lawyers are private practitioners who sell their skill to the heighest bidder and litigation is technical and costly , so long will the nominal equality before the law be a hollow mackery.

In a capitalist regime the whole machinary of democracy operates to keep the ruling class monority in power thrugh the sufferage of working class majority, and when the bourgeois goverment feels itself endangered by democratic institutions, such institutions re often crushed without compunction.

[ p 58]

[ From Marx to Lenin ]

[ by Morris Hillquit ]

Democracy does not secure " equal rights and a share in all political rights for every body , to what ever class or party he may belong " (Kautsky) It only allows free political and legel play .For the existing economic inequalities ............. Democracy under capitalism is thus not general, abstract democracy but specific bourgeois democracy .......... or as Lenin terms it ------------- democracy for bourgeois .

( ......... not readable ed. )

 

[Mandeep Kaur Guraya]

Page 47

" Term "Revolution" defined " :----

" The conception of revolution is not to be treated in the police interpretation of term , in the sense of an armed rising. A party would be mad that would choose the method of insurrection on principle so long as it has at its disposal different , less costly , and safer methods of action. In that sense , social democracy was never revolutioanry on principle . It is only in the sense that it recognises that when it attains political power, it cannot employ it for any other than the abolition of the mode of production upon which thw present system rests. "

" Karl Kautsky"

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Some facts and figures about United States

5 men can produce bread for 1000

1 man acn produce cotton cloth for 250

1 man can produce woollen for 300

1 man can produce boots and shoes for 1000

p78 Iron Heel

: 0 :

15,000,000 are living in abject poverty who cannot even maintain their working efficiency. 3,000,000 child labourer

: 0 :

Re: England :---

Pre war estimates

Total production of England ( per annum) 2000,000,000

Gains through foreign investments 200,000,000

1/9 th part of population took away 1/2 1100,000,000

2/9 th ‘’ ‘’ ‘’ 1/3 of rest 1100,000,000

i.e 300,000,000

..................... (ed. rest not readable )

 

[Mandeep Kaur Guraya]

Page 48

Internationale

Arise, ye prisoners of starvation !

Arise ye wretched on earth ,

To justice thunders condemnation,

A better world’s in birth.

No more traditions chain shall bind us,

Arise ye slaves ! no more in thrall !

The earth shall rise on new foundation ,

we have been naught we be all

[refrain]

it is like final conflict ,

Let earth stand on his place,

The international party ,

Shall be the human race.

---------------------------------

Behold them seated in their glory,

The kings of mine and rail and soil,

When would you read in all their story,

But how they plundered toil?

Fruits of people’s work are buried,

In the strong coffers of a few,

In voting for their restitution,

The men will ask only for their due,

[ same Refrain ]

Toilers from shops and fields united ,

The party we of all who work,

The earth belongs to us, the people,

No room here for the shirk,

How many on our flesh have fattened?

But if the noise some birds of pray ,

Shall vanish from our sky some morning ,

The blessed sunlight still will stay,

[ same Refrain again]

 

[Mandeep Kaur Guraya]

Page 49

Marseillaise

Ye sons of toil ,awake to glory !

Hark , hark , what myraids bid you rise,

Your children, wives and grand sires hoary,

Behold their tears and hear their cries,

Shall hateful tyrants mischief breeding,

With hireling hosts , aruffian band --,

Affright and desolute the land

While peace and liberty lie bleeding ?

[ chorus]

To arms , To arms ! Ye brave!

The avenging sword unsheathe

March on , march on , all hearts resolved,

On Victory or death.



With luxury and pride unsounded,

The vile insatiate despots dare,

Their thirst for gold and power unbounded

To meet and vend the light and air;

Like beasts of burden would they load us,

Like gods would bid their slaves adore,

But man is man and who is more ?

Then shall they longer last and goad us ?

[ The same chorus again ]

Oh liberty ! Can man resign thee,

Once having felt thy generous flame ?

Can dungeons bolts and bars confine thee ,

Or whips thy noble spirit tame ?

Too long the world has wept bewailing ,

The falsehood daggers tyrants wield;

But freedom is our sword and shield,

And all their arts are unavailing ?

[Same Chorus again ]

 

[Mandeep Kaur Guraya]

Page 50

Growth of Opportunism : ----

It was the possibility of acting within the law that reared opportunism within labour parties of the period of Second International .

[ Lenin vide Collapse of II Int. N ]

Illegal Work

" In a country where the bourgeosie , or the counter - revolutionary Social Democracy is in power , te Communist Party must learn to coordinate its legal work with illegal work and legal work must always be under the effective control of illegal party."

Bukharin

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Betrayal of II Int. N’s Cause

The vast organisation of socialism and labour were adjusted to such peace time activities , and when the crisis came , a number of the leaders and large portion of masses were unable to adopt themselves to the new situation ...... It is inevitable development that accounts largely for the betrayal of II International.

Marx to Lenin p 140

Morris Hillquiet

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The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)

Ambrose Prierce writes :---

" Grape shot --- (n) -- An argument which the future is preparing in answer to the demands of American Socialism. "



Rifles !

" You say you will have majority in the Parliament and State offices , but " How many rifles have you got ? Do you know where you can get plenty of lead ? When it comes to powder , the chemical mixtures are better than mechanical mixtures. You take my word."

p198 Iron Heel

 

[Mandeep Kaur Guraya]

Page 53

Power and its Achievement

A socialist leader had addressed a meeting of the plutocrats and charged them of mismanging the society and there by thrown the whole resposibilit for the woes and misery that confronts the suffering humanity.After wards a capitalist ( Mr. Wickson)rose and addressed him as follows :

" This, then, is our answer . We have no words to waste on you. When you reach out your vaunted strong hands for our palaces and purpled ease , we will show you what strength is. In roar os shell and shrapnel and in whine of machine guns will our answer be couched. We will grind you revolutioists down under our heel, and we shall walk upon your faces. The world is ours. We are its lords and ours it shall remain. as for the host of labour. It has always been in the dirt since history began , and I read history aright. And in the dirt it shall remain so long as I and mine , and those that come after us , have the power.

There is the word. It is the king of words ---- Power. Not God , not mammon but power. Pour it over your tongue till it tingles with it. "Power"

" I am answered." Earnest (the socialist leader) said quietly. " Itis the only answer that could be given. Power. It is what we of the working class preach. We know and well we know by bitter experience that no appel for the right, for justice, for humanity can ever touch you. Your hearts are hard as your heels with which you tread upon the faces of the poor. So we have preached power. By the Power of our ballots , on election day will we take your government away from you ........ "

" What if you do get a majority, a sweeping majority on election day." Mr. Wickson broke in to demand . "Suppose we refuse to turn the Government over to you after you have captured it at the ballot box?"

 

[Mandeep Kaur Guraya]

Page 54

" That also we have considered, " Earnest replied. "And we shall give you an answer in terms of lead. Power, you have proclaimed the king of words. Very good! Power, it shall be. And in the day that we sweep to victory at the ballot box, and you refuse to turn over to us the government we have constitutionally and peacefully captured and you demand what we are going to do about it -- ? --- in that day. I say , we shall answer you ; and in roar of shell and shrapnel, in whine of machine guns shall our answer be couched .

" You can not escape us. It is true that you have read history aright. It is true that labour has , from the begining of history been in the dirt . And it is equally true that so long as you and yours and those that come after you , have power, that labour shall remain in dirt. I agree with

you. I agree with all you have said. Power will be the arbiter, as it always have been the arbiter. It is a struggle of classes. Just as your class dragged down the old feudal nobility , so shall be draged down by my class, the working class. If you will read your biology and your sociology as clearly as do your history, you will see that this end I have described is inevitable. It does not matter whether it is in one year , ten or a thousand -- your class will be draged down .And it shall be done by power. We of the labour host have coined that word over , till our minds are all atingle with it. Power. It is kingly word.

Iron Heel P 88

by Jack London

 

[Mandeep Kaur Guraya]

Page 55

Figures : ----

England :---

1922 -- Number of men employment - 1,135,000

1926 -- It has oscillated to 11/4 and 11/2 millions

i.e 1,250,000 to 1,500,000

Betrayal of the English Labour Leaders

The years 1911 to 1913 were times of unparalled class struggles of the miners, railwaymen, and transport workers generally. In August 1911, a national , in other words a general strike broke out on the railways . The vague shadow of revolution hovered over Britain in those days. The leaders exerted all their strength in order to paralys the movement. Their motive was "Patriotism"; the affair was occuring at the time of the Agadir incident which thretened to lead to war with Germany. As is well known today, the Premier summoned the workers’ leaders to a secret council , and called them to salvation of he fatherland. And leaders did all that lay in their power , strengthening the bourgeoisie and thus preparing the way for the imperialist slaughter.

P3

Where is Britain going?

Trotsky

 

[Mandeep Kaur Guraya]

Page 56

Betrayal :--

Only after 1920 ,did the movement returns within bounds , after "Black Friday" when Triple alliance of miner’s ,railwatmen’s and transport leaders betrayed the general strike.

P3

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For Reform a Threat of Revolution is necessary : ----

" The British bourgeoisie reckoned that by such means (reform) a revolution could be avoided. It follows, therefore, that even for the introduction of reforms , the principle of gradualness alone is insufficient, and that an actual threat of revolution is necessary.

p29

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Social Solidarity :

It would seem that once we stand for the annihilation of a privileged class which has no desire to pass from the scene, we have there in the the basic contents of class struggle. But no, Macdonald desires to "evoke" the consciousness of social solidarity . With whom? The solidarity of working class is the expression of its internal welding in the struggle with the bourgeoisie.

The social solidarity which Macdonald preaches is the solidarity of the exploited with the exploiters in other words, the maintenance of exploitation.

Revolution a Calamity :-----

" The revolution in Russia ", says Macdonald, " taught us a great lesson. It showed that revolutions is a ruin and a calamity and nothing more."

 

[Mandeep Kaur Guraya]

Page 57

Revolution leads only to calamity ! But the British Democracy led to the imperialist war, ............ With the ruin of which the calamities of revolution cannot ,of course , be compared in the very least. But in addition to this , wht deaf ears and shameless face are necessary in order ,in the face of a revolution which overthrew Tzarism, nobility and bougeoisie, shook the church , awakened to a new life a nation of 130 million, a whole family of nations , to decare that revolution is a calamity and nothing more.

p 64

: 0 :

Peaceful ? : ----

When and where did the ruling class ever yield power and property on the order of a peaceful vote -- and especially such a class as the British bourgeoisie which has behind it centuries of world rapacity ?

p 66

: 0 :

Aim of socialism :--- Peace

It is absolutely unchallenged that the aim of socialism is to eliminate force, first of all in its most crude and bloody forms , and afterwards in other more concealed forms.

p80

Where is Britain Going ?

Trotsky

Aim of the World Revolution :-----

1. To ver through capitalism

2. To control the nature for the service of humanity.

This is how Bukharin defined it.

 

[Mandeep Kaur Guraya]

Page 58

Man and machinary

The United States Bureau of Labour tells:

12 lbs package of pins can be made by a man working with a machine in 1 hr 34 minutes.

The same would take 140 hours and 55 minutes , if man works with tools only, but without machine.

Ratio 1.34 : 140.55 times

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100 pairs of shoes by machine work takes 234 hr 25 minutes

By hand it will take 1,831 hrs 40 minutes

Labour cost on machine is $ 69.55

"" "" by hand is $ 457.92

: 0 :

500 yards of gingham checks ae made by machine labour in 73 hours

By hand labour , it takes 5,844 hours

: 0 :

100 lbs of sewing cotton can be made by machine labour in 39 hours

By hand it takes 2,895 hours



Re: Agriculture

A good man with scythe can reap 1 acre a day ( 12 hours)

A machine does the same work in 20 minutes.

Six men with flials can thresh 60 liters of wheat in half an hour

One machine thresher can do 12 times as much .

" The increased effectiveness of man - labour aided by the use of machinery ....... varies from 150 % in the case of rye to 2,244 % in the case of Barley.......... "

 

[Mandeep Kaur Guraya]

Page 59

The wealth of U.S.A and its Population : 1850 - 1912

per capita T. Population

In 1850 total wealth was $ 7,135,780,000 $ 308 = 23,191,876

1860 Total wealth was $ 16,159,616,000 $ 514 = 31,443,321

1870 " $ 30,068,518,000 $ 780 = 38,558,371

1880 " $ 43,642,000,000 $ 870 = 50,155,783

1890 $ 65,037,091,000 $ 1,036 = 62,947,714

1900 $ 88,517,307,000 $ 1,165 = 75,994,575

1904 $ 107,104,202,000 $ 1,318 = 82,416,551

1912 $ 187,139,071,000 $ 1,965 = 95,410,503

Due to the use of machinary

: 0 :

The machine is social in nature as the tool was individual

: 0 :

" Give us worst cotton , but give us better men."

Says Emerson

" Deliver me , those rickety perishing souls of infants , and let the cotton trade take its chance."

P 81

: 0 :

The man cannot be sacrificed to machine .The machine must serve mankind. Yet the danger to the human race lurks , menancing in the Industrial Regime.

Poverty and Riches P 81

Scott Nearing

 

[Mandeep Kaur Guraya]

Page 60

Man and Machinary :

C. Hanford Henderson in his " Pay Day" writes :

" This institution of industry the most primitive of all institution , organised and developed in order to free mankind from tyranny of Things , has become it self the greater tyrant degrading a multitude into the conditions of slaves - slaves doomed to produce , through long and weary hours , a senseless glut of things and then forced to suffer for the lack of the very things they have produced. "

Pov. Riches P 87

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Man is not Machinary :---

The combination of steel and fire ,which man has produced and called a machine , which man has produced and called machine , must be ever the servant, never the master of man. Neither the machine nor the machine owner may rule the human race.

P 88

: 0 :

Imperialism : ---

Imperiaism is capitalism in that stage of developent in which monopolies and financial capital have attained a preponderating influence, the export of capital has acquired great importance the international trusts have begun the partition of world , and the biggest capitalist countries have completed the division of the entire terrestrial globe among themselves. "

Lenin

 

[Mandeep Kaur Guraya]

Page 61

Dictatorship : ----

Dictatorship is an authority relying directly upon force , and not bound by any laws.

The revolutionary dictatorship of the proltariat is an authority managed by the proletariate by means of force over and against the bourgeoisie , and not bound by any laws.

Prol. Rev p18 Lenin

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Revolutionary Dictatorship :---

Revolution is an act in which one section of the population imposes its will upon the other by rifles, bayonets , guns and other such exceedingly authoritarian means. And the party which has won is necessarily compelled to maintain its rule by means of that fear which in arms inspire in the reactionaries. If the Commune of Paris had not relied upon the armed people as against bourgeoisie , would it have maintained it self more than twenty- four hours? Are we not, in contrary, justified in reproaching the commune for having employed this authority too little ?"

F.Engles

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Bourgeoisie Democracy : ---

Bourgeoisie Democracy while constituting a great historical advance in comparison with feudalism nevertheless remains and cannot but remain , a very limited , a very hypocritical institution , a paradise for the rich and a trap and a delusion for the exploited and for the poor.

Lenin P 28

 

[Mandeep Kaur Guraya]

Page 62

Exploitation of labour and state :---

Not only the ancient and feudal, but also the representative state of today is an instrument of exploitation of wage labour by capital."

Engles

: 0 :

Dictatorship : ------

"Since the state is only a temporary institution which is to be made use in revolution in order forcibly to suppress the opponents. It is perfectly absurd to talk about a free popular state ; so long as the proletariat still needs it not in the interest of freedom ; but in order to suppress its opponents , and when it becomes possible to speak of freedom the state , as such ,ceases to exist. "

Engels in his letter to Babels March 28th 1875

: 0 :

The impatient Idealist :-----

The impatient idealist --- and without some impatience a man hardly prove effective --- is almost sure to be led into hatered by the opposition, and disappointments which he encounters in his endeavaour to bring happiness to the world.

Bertrand Russell

: 0 :

 

[Mandeep Kaur Guraya]

Page 63

Leader :--

" No time need have gone to ruin" writes Carlyle , " Could it have found a man great enough , a man wise and good enough ; wisdom to dicern truely what the time wanted valour to lead it on the right road thither; these are the salvation of any time."

: 0 :

Arbitrariness :--

Kautsky had written a booklet with the title "Proletariate Dictatorship" and had deplored the act of Bolsheviks in depriving the burgeoisie people from right to vote. Lenin writes in his "Proletarian Revolution " : -- P 77

Arbitariness ! Only tink what a depth of meanest subserviency to bourgeoisie and of the most idiotic pedantry is contained in such a reproach , when thoroughly bourgeios and for the most part even reactionaries jurists of capitalist countries have in the course of , we may almost say , centuries , been drawing up rules and regulations and writing up hundreds of volumes of various codes and laws , and of interpretations of them to oppress the workers , to bind hand and foot (of) the poor men , and to place a hundred and one hindrances and ob

stacles in the way of the simple and toiling masses of people --- when this is done , the bourgeois Liberals and Mr. Kautsky can see no "arbitrariness"! It is all Law and Order ! It has all been thought out and written down, how the poor man is to be kept dwn and squeezed. There are thousands and thousands of bourgeois lawyers and officials able to interpret the laws that the workers and average peasent can never break through their barbed wire entanglements. This of course ,is not a dictatorship of the filthy or profit-seeking exploiters who are drinking the blood of te people. Oh it is nothing of the kind! It is ‘pure democracy’ which is becoming purer

 

[Mandeep Kaur Guraya]

Page 64 and purer everyday. But when the toiling and exploited masses for the first time in history seprated by Imperialist War from their brothers across the frontier, have constructed their Soviets, have summoned to the workers of political constrution , the classes which the bourgeois used to oppress and to stupefy, and begun themselves to build up a new proletarian State, begun in the midest of raging battles ,in the fire of Civil War, to lay down the fundamental principles of "a State without exploiters" , then all the scoundrals of the bourgeoisie , the entire band of blood suckers, with Kautsky, singing ‘obliger to’ scream about arbitariness!"

Lenin p77-78

: 0 :

Party :--

But it has become clear that no revolution is possible unless there is a party able to lead the revolution.

( p 15 Lessons of October 1917 )

A party is the instrument indespensible to a proletarian revolution.

( p17 Idib by Trotesky )

Signatures of B K Dutt

Dated 12/7/30

Law, morality. religion are to him ( the woring man ) so many bourgeois prejudices behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois interests.

Karl Marx -- Menifesto

 

[Mandeep Kaur Guraya]

Page 67

Autograph of Sh B K Dutta

12th July ‘30










[Sorry I could not find autograph image-mandeep ]




Autograph of Mr. B K Dutta taken on 12th July ‘30 in Cell No 137 Central jail Lahore four days before his final departure from this jail .

Sd/- Bhagat Singh

 

[Mandeep Kaur Guraya]

Page 68

Blank

Page 69

Aim of communists : ---

" The communists disdain to conceal their views and aim. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to loose but their chains. They have a world to win Workingmen of all countries , unite.

: 0 :

Aim of Communist Revolution :---

" We have seen above , that the first step in the revolution by working class is to raise the proletriat to the position of ruling class, to win the battle of democracy to wrest , by degree , all capital from the bourgeoisie , to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State , i.e of the proletraiat organised as the ruling class, and to increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible. "

" Communist Manifesto "