Justification for Imperialist-Financed Activities Prakash Karat HARSH SETHI in his injured response to the article on 'Action Groups/Voluntary Organisation' in the The Marxist, fails to counter the central issue posed by us. The article had highlighted the CPI(M) understanding of the strategic design of imperialism in sponsoring and encouraging many such groups. It documented the crore of rupees flowing in from official, semi-official and private agencies in the West to finance thousands of organisations in India. The Government of India permits this How virtually unrestricted to these private bodies. Such funds are used by many organisations for political purposes with the full knowledge and encouragement of the sponsoring agencies; to put forward a political platform, organise different sections of the people for political intervention. The source of the foreign funding may be church or secular. For Harsh Sethi there is nothing wrong per se in utilising such funds if it is used for worthwhile purposes. According to him, "The source may be national or foreign, funds are required and since the source of all surplus is the labour of the working people, surely there is little wrong in laying claim to that surplus. So in a sense, the argument is not funding per se, but the terms of the funding," One can only be amazed at the naivete and flippancy of such an argument which has dangerous implications. Since all surplus is created by the people, there is no harm in receiving money from a CIA front or from the monopolists. As long as one is subjectively satisfied that it is being put to good use, in a manner which may be even for political activity. Sethi obviously finds nothing wrong in using such money for political work. We wonder whether the more serious of the radical action groups would also put out such a defence. As for the CPI(M), we wish to emphatically refute the implication in Harsh Sethi's argument that, "Even in the best organised and long standing trade unions or Kisan Sabhas
