People's Democracy

Programme Of Bengal CPI (M) Conferences Finalised

B Prasant

THE state unit of the CPI (M) has decided to start organising the multi-tier Party conferences, from branch units onwards, on and from November 1. The conferences will be held based on the Party membership as on September 30. The district conferences would be completed by January 31, 2001. The state conference shall be held in Kolkata during the third week of February.

The Bengal state unit of the CPI (M), meeting for a whole day on September 26, finalised the programme of the Party conferences. The programme as always has been drawn up as per the guidelines already laid down by the CPI (M) central committee.

The Party conferences, state secretary of the CPI (M) Anil Biswas said, "shall serve to further augment the political-ideological base of the Bengal unit of the CPI (M)." The Party conferences would also perform the emergent task of strengthening the Party organisation further. The conferences shall focus also on the issue of renewal whereby the younger generation of the Party workers shall be inducted into the various Party committees to work alongside the experienced and the veteran. Democratic centralism shall continue to serve as the guiding principle in the election of the Party committees at every level.

During the holding of the conferences at the levels of the branches, the local committees, the zonal committees, the district committees, and the state committee, concerned Party members would enter into detailed discussion on political, ideological, and organisational issues.

The discussions, Biswas said, would include such issues as the extent to which the Party could highlight its political-ideological stand, the nature of success in coping with the political, social, and economic questions that had come up at the grass-roots level in particular. The deliberations would also go over the manner in which a movement could be built up against the anti-people economic policy and the communal outlook of the BJP-led union government. The different Party committees shall also assess the impact of the Party functioning on the people at large, and especially on the various classes and communities.

Different aspects of the governmental functioning would come under scrutiny. The issues would include the performance of the Left Front government, its limitations, the functioning of the urban and rural local bodies, the prospects of further accelerating the present rate of development, the issues concerning the creation of mass initiative, and the extent of success in enhancing political consciousness among the masses of the people. The matter of the diminishing electoral support of the Party from the class allies albeit in a few areas would be inquired into and reviewed.

The functioning of the mass fronts and of mass struggles and movements would be reviewed. In the case of the functioning of the Party, the issues of inner-Party democracy and weaknesses would be assessed with due importance. The conferences would identify the specific drawbacks in such matters as enhancing the level of political-ideological consciousness among the Party members, the matter of imparting Party education, the issue of success or otherwise of the drives organised towards sale and distribution of Party literature including Party publications.

The Party conferences would review the matter of inculcation of progressive values among the Party members about which steps had already been taken earlier. The functioning of the Party branches would be reviewed, in particular, with regard to efficiency and initiative.

The state committee of the Party has decided that the guidelines published for the 16th state conference of the Bengal unit of the CPI (M) would generally hold and the only additional directives would concern the issue of a Party member not being made eligible for the membership of more than two Party committees. In the matter of electing committees, the issue of the basic classes and of women must be kept in mind. In setting up committees, the issue of induction of fresh blood into the units shall be adhered to. "Party renewal or induction of younger members in the party committees," said Anil Biswas, "is an important way in which the organisation gains efficiency both in the shorter and the longer perspective, just as it constitutes a very important step in the matter of bringing up the future leadership of the Party."