People's Democracy

CPI(M) MAHARASHTRA STATE CONFERENCE

Intensify Struggles Against Neo-Liberal Policies;

Strengthen Organisation

Ashok Dhawale

THE 20th Maharashtra state conference of the CPI(M) was successfully held at Akole in Ahmednagar district from March 25 to 27, 2012. Many years ago, Ahmednagar district in Western Maharashtra had a militant tradition of the Communist movement. Buwa Nawale from Akole had led a large contingent of peasants on foot to the foundation conference of the Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha at Titwala in Thane district in January 1945. Buwa Nawale was elected the first president of the state Kisan Sabha, along with Shamrao Parulekar as general secretary and Godavari Parulekar as joint secretary. In later years, however, revisionism took a heavy toll on the Communist movement in the district, and the Dange line led to many leading Communist leaders crossing over to the Congress.

Ten years ago, a young and determined team of SFI activists began CPI(M) work in Akole tehsil. Through a series of militant struggles on various issues, they established units of the SFI, DYFI, AIDWA, CITU and AIKS over the last one decade, and along with this they also began to build the Party. Gradually, the mass organisations spread from their base in Akole tehsil to other tehsils in the district. The Party made its presence felt in the electoral sphere during the last state assembly elections and the recently held zilla parishad and panchayat samiti elections. A spacious Party office was procured in Akole with mass collections from the people and it was inaugurated last month. It was in this district of Ahmednagar, where the Party has expanded recently that the CPI(M) state conference was held for the first time. The comrades from Ahmednagar district had worked tirelessly for months and had made excellent arrangements for hosting this state conference.

IMPRESSIVE

RALLY     

The conference began on March 25 with an impressive rally and public meeting that was attended by thousands of people. They included a very large section of women. All the above mass organisations had mobilised in strength. Peasants and unorganised workers were the mainstay of this rally, which coursed through Akole town with hundreds of red flags. The entire town had been decorated in red to welcome the state conference. The main speaker at the rally was CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury, MP. Polit Bureau member K Varadharajan was also present. The rally was presided over by state secretariat member Narsayya Adam, ex-MLA, and was addressed by state secretary Dr Ashok Dhawale, state secretariat members Rajaram Ozare, MLA, J P Gavit, ex-MLA, Dr D L Karad, Mariam Dhawale and Ajit Abhyankar, Ahmednagar district secretary Dr Ajit Nawale and district secretariat member Dr Mahebub Sayyed.

Sitaram Yechury and the other speakers spoke of the political challenges before the country and the state and called upon the gathering to launch massive struggles on peoples’ issues and to strengthen the Party and the Left forces in the days ahead.   

Two important events were held in the public meeting. Four veteran local leaders - freedom fighter Gopalrao Bhangre, Yadavrao Nawale, Halimabi Chand Pathan and Ranganath Malunjkar – were felicitated by Sitaram Yechury. And, two new books published by the Party’s publishing house Janashakti Prakashan – one on Commercialisation of Education edited by Ramsagar Pandey and the other a collection of progressive poems by Subhash Boddewar – were released by K Varadharajan.

The conference began in the venue named after Comrade M K Pandhe; the hall was named after Comrade Prabhakar Sanzgiri; the dais after Comrade Ahilya Rangnekar; the dais of the public meeting after Comrade Gangadhar Appa Burande; and the various welcome arches after Comrades P B Rangnekar, Krishna Khopkar and Vinayak Gaikwad – all of them having passed away after the last state conference.

One more arch had been named after Comrade Mathi Ozare, a poor adivasi woman comrade from the Talasari tehsil of Thane district who was martyred on February 27, 2012. She was killed by BJP goons inhumanly by repeatedly stoning her on the head when she was going home alone at night. She was killed because she had worked day and night for the victory of the CPI(M) in the just-concluded local body elections. She was the 60th martyr of the Party in Thane district since the historic adivasi Revolt in 1945 and the first woman martyr of the CPI(M) and the AIDWA in Maharashtra.   

The inaugural session began in the tastefully decorated venue on the evening of March 25 with the flag-hoisting by the senior most state committee member L B Dhangar, who is 84 years old and who joined the Party way back in 1947. After the rendering of revolutionary songs by the Praja Natya Mandal of Solapur, the delegates paid floral tributes to martyrs.

The conference elected a presidium comprising Narsayya Adam, Lahanu Kom, Dr Kishore Theckedath, Udayan Sharma and Sanjabai Khambait; a steering committee comprising the state secretariat; a resolutions committee comprising Ajit Abhyankar (convenor), Mahendra Singh and Kiran Moghe; a credentials committee comprising Vijay Gabhane (convenor), Sanjay Thakur, Umesh Deshmukh, Subhash Pandey and Preeti Shekhar; and a minutes committee comprising Prakash Choudhari, Shubha Shamim, Dr S K Rege and Manik Avaghade. Mahendra Singh placed the condolence resolution paying homage to martyrs, departed leaders and progressive personalities.

After the welcome address by Dr Mahebub Sayyed on behalf of the reception committee, the state conference was inaugurated by Sitaram Yechury. He began by referring to the situation in West Bengal, where the Party is engaged in a grim battle against our class enemies. Hundreds of our Party comrades have been martyred in recent years. But he stressed that the Party in Bengal is regrouping and fighting back the violent offensive of the Trinamulis and the Maoists. Coming to the international scene, he said the offensive of imperialism in the military, political and economic spheres increased sharply with the fall of the Soviet Union. The massive expansion of finance capital intensified the exploitation of the working people, lowered their purchasing power and this is what eventually resulted in the unprecedented global economic crisis that is continuing since 2008. But the resistance to imperialism is also growing. In Latin America, Left forces in various countries have embarked on an alternative path of development, which includes nationalisation of national resources. The ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement in the United States and the working class struggles in Europe are other manifestations of this growing resistance.

Coming to the national situation, Sitaram Yechury came down heavily on the UPA-2 regime for its neo-liberal policies which are playing havoc with the toiling masses, and its unbridled corruption scandals. The BJP was no different in both these aspects, and in addition was continuing with its communal machinations. For the advance of the Party, it was necessary to launch sustained mass struggles on both economic and social issues. Along with striving for the unity of our basic classes, the socially oppressed sections must get the confidence that it is only the Red Flag that will stand by them unflinchingly. An alternative to the present ruling classes can only emerge on the basis of intense struggles and alternative policies. Detailed discussion on all these issues will take place in the ensuing 20th Party Congress. Sitaram concluded by asserting that in the present situation in the country and in Maharashtra also, it is only the CPI(M) and the Left that can show the way to an alternative. It is with this confidence that we must go ahead after this state conference.

The conference was then greeted by Prakash Reddy on behalf of the CPI and by S V Jadhav on behalf of the PWP. Both of them called for strengthening Left unity in the days ahead.

POL-ORG

REPORT  

In the delegate session, state secretary Dr Ashok Dhawale placed the political-organisational report. Four printed documents had been circulated to all the delegates – political report, organisational report, statistical appendices to the organisational report, and mass front reports. All of them had been discussed and adopted by the state committee earlier in the month. Another document that was also circulated was the resolution on party whole-timers adopted by the state committee.

The political report takes stock of the socio-economic processes unfolding in Maharashtra and concludes that rural pauperisation, anarchic urbanisation, drastically declining credibility of the government due to massive corruption, and steep rise in socio-economic inequalities and criminalisation are the four main features. The political situation is characterised by increasing struggles of the working people; growing tensions between the Congress and NCP on the one hand and also between the Shiv Sena and BJP on the other; the increased influence of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) in certain urban centres like Mumbai, Nashik and Pune; Muslim consolidation behind the Samajwadi Party in Mumbai; the rank political opportunism of the RPI (Athavale) group that has allied with the Shiv Sena-BJP combine; the increased activity of Naxalite and Maoist groups in certain sections; the large popular response to the struggle against corruption but its inability to consolidate itself in the form of a political challenge to the ruling classes; and the decline of people’s participation in the democratic process which is getting increasingly distorted.

The organisational report takes objective stock of the Party organisation in three sections: agitational work; political-ideological work; and organisational work. The main features of the work of the Party in Maharashtra during the last four years are as follows:

·        The Party has conducted statewide mass struggles and political campaigns, in some of which there has been good mobilisation of one lakh to 1.60 lakh people each: against price rise and for food security; against corruption; campaign against the Indo-US nuclear deal in which several central Party leaders participated; against the Jaitapur nuclear power plant; jathas and public meetings to commemorate the golden jubilee of the formation of Maharashtra state; intervention in several cases of social atrocities; electoral campaigns for the Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha and local body polls; and the successful completion of the unprecedented Comrade Godavari Parulekar Housing Scheme of 10,000 houses for women beedi workers in Solapur.

·        The mass organisations have conducted statewide struggles as follows: trade union front – large participation in the three all India strikes and the Delhi rally; constant struggles of various sections of unorganised workers that have mobilised thousands. Kisan front – struggle for implementation of the Forest Rights Act and other burning peasant issues, in which over one lakh peasants courted arrest; for inclusion of the names of the poor in the BPL lists, in which 1.25 lakh rural poor participated in mass actions. Agricultural workers front – struggles on issues like NREGA, ration and houses; women, youth and student fronts – struggles on issues of food security, employment and education respectively.

·        In the Lok Sabha elections of 2009, the CPI(M) polled nearly 2,00,000 votes in the two constituencies of Dindori (ST) in Nashik district and Palghar (ST) in Thane district. In the Vidhan Sabha elections of 2009, the Party polled over 2,70,000 votes in 20 seats, retained the seat in Thane district for the eighth time in a row since 1978, polling over 62,000 votes there, lost the other two seats in Nashik and Solapur districts but polled over 92,000 votes in both of them together, got over 15,000 votes in two other seats, and over 10,000 votes in three more seats. In the local body elections of 2012, the CPI(M) won 31 seats – 8 zilla parishad seats, 17 panchayat samiti seats and 6 municipal corporation seats in 7 districts – Thane, Nashik, Solapur, Nandurbar, Parbhani, Nanded and Buldana. In all the above elections, the Party practically relied on its own independent strength.

·        There was an increase of over 1,35,000 (5,43,581 to 6,79,129) in the total membership of all six mass organisations during the last four years, as follows: trade union – 85,625 to 1,22,487; kisan – 1,90,197 to 2,35,212; agricultural workers – 82,452 to 1,26,530; women – 75,112 to 73,510; youth – 86,925 to 86,055; and student – 23,398 to 35,335.

·        The proportion of Party membership in each mass front in 2011 was as follows: kisan – 50.4 per cent; trade union – 17.5 per cent; youth – 12.3 per cent; women – 8 per cent; agricultural workers – 4.9 per cent; student – 1.4 per cent; other fronts – 2.9 per cent.

·        Apart from the six main mass fronts, good work was done on the transport front and on the university and college teachers fronts, and in a few districts on the housing front.

·        Publication of a new colour edition of the Party weekly Jeevanmarg began from January 2012 with resultant increase in circulation, but a larger increase is necessary. Two large special annual issues of Jeevanmarg were published in 2008 and 2011.

·        1,52,000 copies of 41 different books and pamphlets were published by the Party state committee and by the Party publishing house Janashakti Prakashan in the last seven years. There was a good sale of this literature by the districts (Rs 10 lakh in the last four years).

·        Three state-level Party classes were held with an attendance of 350 to 400 comrades each. Five state-level classes were held for the student front, three for the kisan front, and one each for the agricultural workers and youth fronts. Several district-level Party classes were held. But much more work on the Party education front is necessary.

·        There was a marginal increase in Party membership from 12,051 to 12,586 in the last four years. There was an increase of 6.7 per cent in the peasant membership, but a corresponding decline of 3.1 per cent, 2.7 per cent and 0.9 per cent in the working class, agricultural workers and middle class membership respectively in the last four years.

·        A significant feature of Maharashtra is that 53.5 per cent of the total Party membership is from adivasis, and most of it is from the Thane and Nashik districts. There is an increase of 4.2 per cent in the number of adivasi comrades, increase of 0.8 per cent in the number of dalit comrades, and an increase of 0.6 per cent in the number of women comrades, but there is a two per cent drop in the number of minority comrades in the last four years.

·        However, one worrisome feature is the 6 per cent decline of young comrades below 40 years of age, from 52 per cent to 46 per cent in the last four years. This aspect must be addressed seriously by the Party in the days ahead.

·        Important initiatives were taken by the state committee on the question of Party whole-timers. A Rs 40 lakh whole-timers fund was collected in the state for the first time. An increase in the number and wages of whole-timers was effected, but much more is necessary. The first state-level Party whole-timers class was held in November 2011. A resolution on Party whole-timers was adopted by the state committee for the first time.

·        There was a substantial increase in the Party levy coming to the state committee, from Rs 11.41 lakh in 2007 to Rs 29.74 lakh in 2011. A Rs 8.5 lakh fund was collected from the state and given to the West Bengal Solidarity Fund. Rs 17 lakh worth of advertisements were collected from the state for the Jeevanmarg special issue 2011, and this amount was utilised for the renovation of the state Party office Janashakti in Mumbai and for the Comrade B T Ranadive Smarak Bhavan in New Mumbai.

·        A resolution on Party Rectification in Maharashtra was discussed thoroughly and adopted by the state committee, but implementation of the campaign was unsatisfactory at the lower levels. A ‘One and a Half Year Plan for Party Development’ was adopted by the state committee after review of the earlier Plan, but some tasks still remain to be completed.

·        The organisational report also sharply pinpoints many weaknesses in several spheres.

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The political-organisational report concludes by setting out the direction of tasks to be adopted for the future. It stresses on unleashing large and sustained mass struggles; taking up social issues much more seriously; leading big campaigns against corruption and criminalisation; combating divisive forces of all types; fighting against imperialist intervention in all spheres; increasing political-ideological awareness amongst Party members manifold; giving a much more extensive, democratic and militant shape to all mass fronts; trying to achieve unity of Left and secular forces, but fully concentrating on increasing the independent strength and influence of the Party; and preparing in right earnest for the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections that are due in 2014.

The various reports of the mass fronts were briefly placed before the conference by Dr D L Karad, Kisan Gujar, Prakash Choudhari, Kiran Moghe, Shailendra Kamble and Ajit Abhyankar respectively.

In the day-long discussion on the political-organisational report on March 26, as many as 68 comrades participated. The level of discussion surpassed that of earlier state conferences and the delegates freely expressed their views, criticisms and suggestions that greatly helped to enrich the report. The report was adopted unanimously after a detailed reply by the state secretary.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member K Varadharajan, addressing the conference after the conclusion of the discussion on the report, congratulated the delegates for their enlightening discussion. He stressed the need for conducting local struggles on people’s issues, building up the mass fronts and taking our political line to the people in a convincing manner. He also underlined the importance of following Communist norms and abiding by the organisational principles of the Party.

CONCLUDING

SESSION    

In the concluding session of the state conference on March 27, the conference adopted a number of important resolutions: against the Jaitapur nuclear power plant; against social atrocities; for the implementation of the Sachar Committee and the Ranganath Mishra Committee recommendations; for adivasi autonomous regions within the state of Maharashtra; on the implementation of the Forest Rights Act; for remunerative prices to the peasantry; for debt relief to the peasantry; for universalisation of the PDS; on the redressal of regional imbalances in the state; against certain proposed irrigation projects that will result in the elimination of several adivasi villages; against the commercialisation of education; and condemning the recent police repression in Solapur.

Vijay Gabhane placed the credentials report. There were a total of 381 delegates and observers from 30 out of the 35 districts in the state.  Of these, 37 were state committee members, 291 were delegates and 53 were observers. There were 54 women delegates and observers. 63 delegates were from the working class, 79 from agricultural workers, 139 from poor peasants, 42 from middle peasants, 1 from rich peasants and 51 from the middle class. 139 were adivasis, 53 were dalits and 27 were from the minorities. 4 had joined the Party before 1964, 10 from 1965-70, 61 from 1971-80, 101 from 1981-90, 110 from 1991-2000 and 80 from 2001-11. 29 were less than 30 years of age, 99 from 31-40 years, 115 from 41-50 years, 81 from 51-60 years, 40 from 61-70 years, 10 from 71-80 years and 2 were over 80 years of age. 14 were illiterate, 23 had primary education, 159 had secondary education, 63 had higher secondary education, 27 were graduates, 50 were postgraduates, 12 were doctorates and 29 were medical doctors, engineers and lawyers. 297 were subscribers to Jeevanmarg, 73 to Loklahar, 45 to People’s Democracy, 35 to Marxist and seven to other Party papers. There were 110 Party whole-timers among the delegates, and 68 more were prepared to become Party whole-timers.

In an emotional session, a sum of nearly Rs 1,50,000 was collected or pledged by the state and district committees of the Party and the various mass organisations to help the family of martyr Comrade Mathi Ozare. This amount was handed over by Sitaram Yechury to the Thane district secretary of the Party, Rajaram Ozare, who announced that the CPI(M) Thane district committee has already given a call to its units to collect Rs 1,00,000 for the family of its adivasi woman martyr.

The conference elected a 50-member new state committee, a three-member state control commission and 16 delegates and two observers to the 20th Party Congress. Five special invitees to the state committee were also announced. The new state committee, in its first meeting, unanimously re-elected Dr Ashok Dhawale as the state secretary and a 15-member state secretariat whose other members are: K L Bajaj, Mahendra Singh, Narsayya Adam, J P Gavit, Dr D L Karad, Rajaram Ozare, Mariam Dhawale, Ajit Abhyankar, Manohar Muley, Dr Kishore Theckedath, Udayan Sharma, Vijay Gabhane and Nathu Salve. One more seat for the Marathwada region will be filled in six months.

After the concluding remarks by Sitaram Yechury, the enthusiastic felicitation of all the young volunteers at the hands of Sitaram Yechury and K Varadharajan, the vote of thanks by Dr Ajit Nawale and Narsayya Adam and the spirited red salute by all the delegates to the Ahmednagar comrades who had carried out a splendid job of hosting this state conference, the conference ended with the Internationale amidst resounding revolutionary slogans.   

Several thousand rupees worth of progressive literature was sold and a large number of subscriptions to the Party papers were collected during this state conference. An impressive Marathi play that was staged by the activists of our cultural front Lok Sanskritik Manch from Aurangabad, and the Praja Natya Mandal of Solapur inspired the conference throughout with its revolutionary songs. The state conference received excellent coverage in both print and electronic media.