People's Democracy

Goa: State Organizing Committee Holds Conference

HELD on January 28 and 29, 2012, Azad Bhavan, Porvorim, Goa, the 15th Goa state organising committee conference began with Anand Betkikar, the most senior delegate, hoisting the party’s flag. The venue was renamed Comrade Jyoti Basu Nagar on the occasion, and carried the portraits of Comrades Harkishan Singh Surjeet, Jyoti Basu and M K Pandhe.

Welcoming the delegates and citizens to the open session, Advocate Jatin Naik said it was significant that the conference was being held in an institution established and managed by the Goa freedom fighters association. He reminded the audience that the Goa freedom fighters like T B D’Cunha, Menezes-Braganca and Gerald Pereira were inspired by the socialist and Left ideology, which we are striving to take forward.

A presidium based on S S Naik, Kamlakant Gadekar and Prashant Gaonkar conducted the conference proceedings. S S Naik placed the condolence resolution.

Inaugurating the conference, Vivek Monteiro stated that the red flag that we had hoisted, was born in the martyrdom of workers in the struggle for basic rights. He said the capitalist ideologues who were crowing about the collapse of socialism twenty years back are today finding capitalism itself sinking in a crisis in all the advanced countries, while Left and democratic alternatives are again coming forward and establishing themselves in many parts of South America, while socialist countries like China are making steady progress. Monteiro said in Goa the role of corruption in politics is not a new story, but it is only the Left which has consistently fought against corruption at all levels. Parties like the BJP and organisations like the RSS have no credibility in the fight against corruption, and they have been silent about the mega corruption of the BJP led government in the neighbouring Karnataka in the matter of illegal mining. Corruption can be fought only by an alternative politics which is not controlled by moneybags, and it is only the Left which can provide such politics to Goa and the country. He commended the newly formed Kisan Sabha for showing that it is possible to take on the mining lobby in Goa and compel the big mining companies to pay compensation to the affected farmers.

Sugandhi Francis (state vice president of Janwadi Mahila Sangathana in Maharashtra), Kamlakant Gadekar and Prashant Gaonkar also addressed  the open session.

The delegates session began with presentation of the pol-org report by the state organising committee’s secretary Thalmann Pereira. The report discussed several issues which have come on the political agenda of Goa such as the issue of state aid to primary schools and language, mining, environment, livelihood and the demand for nationalisation of the mining industry, the tribal issue in Goa, the demand for closing down of casinos, and the Goa regional development plan 2020. It pointed out that though 12 per cent of Goa’s population is classified as tribal, there is not a single reserved constituency for scheduled tribes in the forthcoming assembly elections. The report self-critically noted that though there was progress in mass work on the kisan and women’s fronts and among the middle class professionals like lawyers over the last four years, this had not yet translated into a growth of party membership, and this is the main task ahead.

Six delegates spoke on the secretary’s report, which was adopted unanimously after the secretary’s reply. The conference also discussed the forthcoming assembly elections. It elected a new, 11 member state organising committee comprising Thalmann Pereira, Gopi Waman Rao, S S Naik, Naresh Shigaonkar, Anand Betkikar, P M Naik, Kamlakant Gadekar, Pradeep Salgaonkar, Jatin Naik and Prashant Gaonkar, with one place vacant to be filled by co-option later.

Thalmann Pereira was re-elected secretary of the state organising committee, and also as a delegate to the 20th party congress.

The conference concluded with an address by Vivek Monteiro in which he stressed the possibility as well as the need for reaching out to the unorganised sectors in the coming period in order to build the party as a party of all the working people of Goa. He stressed on the need of having collective reviews every year in order to monitor the implementation of the tasks set forth by the conference.

The conference ended with the singing of the Internationale.

Later the secretary announced the candidature of Kamlakant Gadekar from Mayem constituency and Prashant Gaonkar from Sanvordem in the forthcoming assembly elections.