CALL OF THE 21ST STATE CONFERENCE OF THE CPI(M) AP COMMITTEE

Expand Mass Base, Project Left Democratic Alternative

  N S Arjun

THE 21st state conference of the CPI(M) Andhra Pradesh unit resolved to concentrate all its energies for the rapid and wide expansion of the mass base of the Party in the state. Noting the yearning among the people of the state for a real alternative and the growing prestige of the Party, the conference also resolved to take the lead in projecting a Left and democratic alternative to the TDP and Congress parties.

The state conference was held in Comrade L B Gangadhara Rao Nagar at Warangal during January 26-28 in an enthusing atmosphere. The conference venue was named after the late Polit Bureau member and stalwart leader of the Party in the state.

INAUGURAL SESSION

The proceedings of the conference began with the hoisting of thered flag by CPI(M) senior leader Parsa Satyanarayana at the venue. Speaking on the occasion, he asserted that socialism is the future. Later delegates paid floral tributes at the martyrs column.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury inaugurated the conference with his analytical address covering the current international and national situation and the tasks before the Party.

Yechury said there were two aspects of the ongoing globalisation process which must be noted for clearer understanding. One, it emerged as part of the process of capitalist path of development - this is the objective factor. Second - the subjective factor - the imperialism is using this process to strengthen its hegemony for intensifying its exploitation. As Marxists, we have to recognise the objective factor and deal with it accordingly, as the Left Front government in West Bengal was doing. In this regard he mentioned the issue of foreign direct investment and said as part of globalisation it is bound to come into our country. The question therefore is not whether to allow it or not but whether we can ensure that it is in the interests of our country by putting conditions. The bourgeoisie governments were not showing the required will for this and hence indulging in reckless liberalisation. This was ensuring one-way profits for the foreign capital while the disparities between the rich and poor were widening. If earlier there was jobless growth, today we were witnessing job-loss growth. Yechury said in the coming period the capitalist crisis is bound to intensify further and this is where the subjective factor of globalisation comes into picture.

To overcome this crisis, the imperialism was hegemonising in order to take control over the economic resources of the world. All these wars in the name of fighting terrorism were part of this attempt, he said. Yechury noted that as a counter to this process there was growing resistance around the world against war and globalisation. Though the anti-war movement was robust and growing, it is not based on anti-imperialist consciousness. The task before communists was to integrate both these movements into a powerful worldwide anti-imperialist movement.

Referring to the national situation, Yechury said the Left support to the UPA government was mainly to prevent the communal forces from staging a comeback to power. Even today the danger posed by these forces cannot be underestimated. However, the Congress party – true to its class interests – was implementing the same economic policies as that of the NDA. He charged that it was trying to go back on the CMP commitments. The task before the Left was to bring constant pressure upon the government to implement the promises made in the CMP, said Yechury. And, this can be done only by building mass movements and class struggles against these policies, he said.

Referring to the demand for separate Telangana, Yechury said the experience of Jharkhand, Uttaranchal and Chattisgarh showed that mere carving up of small state does not result in development. The key issue for ensuring development was the land reforms, which was taken up by the communists during the Telangana armed struggle itself. He called upon the people of the state not to be swayed by the short-sighted slogans and realise that development was possible in a united state of Andhra Pradesh.

On the issue of unity of the two communist parties, – CPI(M) and CPI – Yechury said that this could be ensured through sustained political unity at the grassroots level through united action. “Communist unity cannot be just unity for electoral purposes like the bourgeoisie parties. It has to be based on ideological unity”, asserted Yechury. In the current juncture, where the Left parties are in a key position to influence national politics, many people even outside the traditional fold of the two parties are keen that such unity is achieved, he said.

Earlier, reception committee president K Venkataiah delivered the welcome address while state secretariat member Y Venkateshwara Rao moved a condolence resolution paying tribute to various comrades who passed away since the last conference.

POL-ORG REPORT

Party state secretary B V Raghavulu placed the draft political-organisational report in the conference. In his 90 minute long address, he outlined the important aspects of the 44-page document which was circulated to the delegates. In fact, this document was given to district committees a week in advance for enabling thorough study and discussion. All the delegates elected to the state conference in the district conferences held separate meetings to discuss the draft report. This way they came well prepared to take part in the discussions in the state conference.

The eight month long Congress rule in the state has shown that as far as economic policies are concerned it is no different from the TDP rule. The people of the state do not have a real choice. There is a yearning among the people for a genuine alternative and this is bound to strengthen as the Congress government adopts more and more anti-people stance, stated Raghavulu. With the prestige of the CPI(M) much enhanced due to its principled political line and militant struggles against anti-people policies both in the state and the centre, the Party must seize this opportunity to build a Left democratic alternative in the state, said Raghavulu. He felt the political situation for strengthening the Party is much more favourable today. He identified the militant struggle waged by the Party against the World Bank dictated power tariff hike effected by the Chandrababu Naidu government as a key struggle which enhanced the Party image among people. "Today the people of our state are more knowledgable about the danger of World Bank reforms compared to the people of any other state. Waging struggles against World Bank reforms is a key part of the anti-imperialist struggle", said Raghavulu.

He said that the grip the bourgeoisie parties had over vast sections of socially backward groups like SCs, STs and BCs  was weakening as the impact of the economic "reforms" was hitting these sections the hardest. "They are ready to shift if they can find a viable alternative. We must work hard among these sections", said Raghavulu. He qualified that mere increase in prestige wont translate into growth of the Party and that there is no substitute to concrete work among the masses. Noting that the last three years have seen the expansion of the Party to new areas and increase in membership from 40,830 to 49,527, he said this strength is still very limited compared to the size of the state. That is why there is an urgent need to concentrate on increasing the mass base of the Party significantly. For this the Party should concentrate on local issues while the mass organisations should reorient their work and take up such activities which would aid the expansion of mass base. The crucial aim of the work of mass organisations must be to wean away the masses rallied behind bourgeoisie parties towards our Party. They should opt for more united struggles while not neglecting independent work, said Raghavulu. He also called for strengthening of the organisational work. In conclusion he recounted the following three key tasks before the Party today:

• Building a Left democratic alternative

• Expanding the mass base of the Party rapidly and widely

• Ridding the Party of non-communist trends.

DISCUSSIONS & KARAT'S OBSERVATIONS

Two days of discussions followed the placing of the pol-org report. In the first phase of discussions, all mass organisations, including the various artisan organisations formed in the last three years participated. They all unanimously endorsed the report and gave suggestions strengthening it further. On January 27, discussions were held district wise. Along with the delegates, these discussions were followed by Polit Bureau members from the centre, Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karat. After major part of the discussions were completed, Prakash Karat made a speech containing his observations. At the outset he stated that the draft pol-org report was very comprehensive and would be useful in giving correct direction to the Party in the state once it is adopted by the conference. He said the report was a very good example of concrete analysis based on concrete reality. He lauded the systematic and planned efforts made by the state committee for developing the Party in the last three years, particularly the effort to reach the Party political line to maximum number of people.

Karat called for utilising the current favourable situation for the Party, which was created in the first place by the correct political line and concrete work for implementing it, to develop the Party further. For this, there is a need to correctly understand the new situation after the Lok Sabha elections. There is today an opportunity to not only oppose the liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation policies but also to present alternative policies. The Left parties notes to the UPA government on various issues must be seen in this light. On all major policy issues, the Left was not only just opposing but also proposing alternatives. If this policy intervention is backed up with mass mobilisation through mass struggles then it can be seen that the UPA government does not move far away from the CMP, said Karat.

Similarly in Andhra Pradesh, the Party was poised to make advances in the new situation, he said. This stage, he reminded, was achieved through relentless struggles waged by the Party against the TDP government's policies. He called for effectively utilising the short period of favourable atmosphere for expanding the Party. Saying that Andhra unit had a special place in the CPI(M) with many of the founder stalwarts of the Party coming from here, Karat noted that even in the present the experiences here were worthy of emulation all over the country by the Party. He cited the work of the Party among dalits through the Struggle Committee against Caste discrimination and the developing of a range of mass organisations focussed on various sections of the society. He appreciated the stress laid by the report on the need for an ideological struggle against Left sectarianism and said with the globalisation increasing the disparities sharply the appeal for Left adventurism remains, particularly in Andhra Pradesh.

On the concluding day of the conference, i.e. on January 28, the state secretary B V Raghavulu replied to the marathon discussions. He said most of the amendments received by the steering committee were in the nature of strengthening the draft, clarifying further certain formulations etc. He replied to various organisational matters raised by the delegates. He called for waging of relentless struggle against non-communist trends wherever visible within the Party. This was all the more important in respect of elected representatives as they are usually the public face of the Party. He concluded the reply with a call for orienting all activity towards expanding the mass base of the Party in the state.

GREETINGS BY SURJEET

CPI(M) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet greeted the conference on the concluding day. He had also sat through some of the discussion on January 27 and 28. Saying that the conference was being held at a crucial juncture in the country’s political history, Surjeet said the Party’s prestige was high today because of the struggles it had relentlessly waged. Recalling his association with Comrades P Sundarayya, M Basavapunnaiah and others, Surjeet said he had special relationship with Andhra Party through the tumultuous events. He recalled that he had given word to Comrades PS and MB that he would remain steadfastly committed to the movement and that it was great satisfaction that he could keep that word. This emotional words from Surjeet were greeted with thunderous slogans of “Red Salute to Comrade Surjeet” by the delegates. Surjeet said Andhra Party has shown today that there is no dearth of leaders and experience in the Party. Saying that he had specially come to Warangal to greet the conference, Surjeet congratulated the Party state committee for holding such a successful conference.

NEW COMMITTEE

 A new 80-member state committee was elected by the conference. B V Raghavulu was re-elected as the state secretary for a third consecutive time. The size of the committee has been increased from 78 to 80. While 8 members were newly elected, 6 members from the old committee were relieved due to old age and other responsibilities. There were slight changes in the state secretariat also but the number remained the same at 15. Four members – CITU state secretary S Veeraiah, AIKS state president S Malla Reddy, Warangal district secretary G Nagaiah and Nalgonda district secretary Ch Sitaramulu – were elected. A Satyanarayana, K Venkataiah and Dr Y Radhakrishna Murty opted out of the secretariat due to health reasons. Another member Comrade VN expired recently.

A three member state control commission was elected by the conference. It is chaired by K Venkateswarlu and comprises of P Roja and V Narasimha Rao. It may be mentioned here that the last control commission did not receive even a single complaint and hence did not even meet once during the last three years. It was pointed out that this reflects the organisational unity of the Party.

The conference also elected 36 delegates to the 18th Party Congress to be held in New Delhi from April 6 to 11, 2005.

RESOLUTIONS

The state conference passed in all 25 resolutions on various aspects concerning the state. Raghavulu moved a resolution on the comprehensive development of the state. It analysed the reasons for uneven development in the state, the exact status of various regions as on today and suggested concrete measures for the under-developed regions in the state. A political resolution was moved by state secretariat member V Sreenivasa Rao which analysed the present political situation and delineated the CPI(M) stand. He also moved a separate resolution on the peace talks between government and the Maoists. The resolution called on both sides to resume talks in the interests of the people who were strongly in favour of peace. This was also necessary in the interests of democracy. Resolutions were moved on the issues concerning minorities, women, education, health, land issue, power sector, tribal people, agricultural labour, artisans, caste discrimination, powers to local bodies, democratic rights, cultural pollution etc.

All these resolutions were unanimously passed by the conference after some minor additions.

YECHURY’S CONCLUDING SPEECH

Sitaram Yechury called for the Party to take lead in projecting a Left democratic alternative in the state and he expressed full confidence in the ability of the Party in successfully conducting this task. He wanted the Party to utilise the time and space it itself had created in the state through relentless struggles for projecting this alternative.

Yechury was delivering the concluding address in the state conference. He felt this conference would herald a new phase for the Party in the state. Praising the remarkable organisational unity evident in the state, Yechury said that this will be a valuable contribution of the state unit to the entire Party. He identified the combination of experience and youthful elements as the strength of the Andhra Party. He wanted the Party to focus on three areas to emerge as an alternative in the state:

Sharpening the ideological struggle. This was all the more necessary in Andhra as it was rocked by globalisation on one side and Naxalism, which seeks to divert the discontent away from the struggles, on the other.

Linking economic struggles with class struggles and

Intensifying struggles in social sector.

By integrating all these three, the Party can effectively use the favourable situation, said Yechury.