People's Democracy

Bengal CPI(M) Finalises Draft Pol-Org Report

And Proposed Resolution On LF Govt

 B Prasant

THE Bengal state unit of the CPI(M), meeting at Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan in Kolkata on January 30-31, discussed and finalised two documents.  The documents are: the draft political-organisational report and the draft resolution on the Bengal Left Front government.

Biman Basu presided over the meeting.  State secretary Anil Biswas explained the perspective and direction given in the draft pol-org report.  Central committee member Nirupam Sen raised the resolution on the Left Front government and tasks. 

The 21st state conference of the Bengal CPI(M) will take place at Kamarhati right in the midst of the industrial belt of north 24 Parganas between February 9 and 12.  The open rally will be organised at the Brigade Parade grounds in Kolkata on February 12.  The principal speakers will include Jyoti Basu, Prakash Karat, Biman Basu, Anil Biswas, and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

The state committee meeting saw members of the committee discuss the two documents in detail in order to enrich the contents.  Amendments were put up in this direction and advice given as they addressed the political-organisational issues.

The draft pol-org report concerning itself with the international situation believes that the terrible aggression of the US imperialism perpetrated on the world is accompanied nonetheless by burgeoning crisis of imperialism itself as the world capitalist system faces a predicament.  The draft report pledges the resolve of the CPI(M) to strengthen the anti-imperialist struggle worldwide.

The part where the report focuses attention onto the national situation, the argument is plausibly forwarded that should the Congress-led UPA government cling to anti-people economic policies, the threat of the BJP reaping advantage from the resultant discontent will receive an unwelcome boost.  In view of the dim chances of the UPA government taking a firm anti-communal stance, it devolves on the CPI(M) and the Left to fight communalism with the aim of rooting it out.

The CPI(M) has a programme of independent action of mass struggles that is not limited to the UPA governance, in fact far from it.  The CPI(M) must launch struggles and movements to defend and advance the interests of the mass of the people especially the working people.

The enhanced envelope of this struggle will give rise to the augmentation of the task, important and relevant, of building up a third front in the days to come.  In Bengal, the CPI(M) will focus adequate attention and attract to its fold the sections of the people through launching struggles and movements against the BJP, the Trinamul Congress, and the Congress.

While discussing the political situation in Bengal, the draft document refers to the need to continue apace with struggles against the politics of compromise, opportunism, and political bankruptcy that the Congress fosters and advocates.  There is no Chinese wall, the Bengal CPI(M) holds, between this move and the imperatives of lending support to the UPA government in Delhi.

The Congress is guilty as the Trinamul Congress and the BJP in organising anarchic threats to the developmental work, thoroughly pro-people as ever, of the Bengal Left Front government, the Bengal CPI(M) feels. It also firmly believes in the adage to be on the alert all the time against the communal menace and that in doing this, recalls that Bengal has a brilliant anti-communal heritage to look to.

To combat the menace of the separatist and divisive Maoists, Jharkhandi and Kamtapuri secessionist elements, the CPI(M) is wont to emphasise both a relentless ideological battle and an accelerated pace of developmental work.  The campaign-movement of the CPI(M) must be further strengthened in order also to foil the massive assault on the Party and the Left Front by the corporate media.  The draft report also stressed on the importance of further augmentation of the political contact with the people and the need to enhance the level of political consciousness.

Turning to the organisational structure of the Bengal CPI(M), the draft document notes that the way to develop politically and organisationally would be to enhance the level of the political education of the Party members, to practice with rigour Party discipline and Communist morality, to strengthen democratic centralism, to widen and deepen the rectification drive, to further consolidate Party unity through will and work.  The weaknesses yet lingering on need to be tackled on an urgent basis.

The draft report highlights some important statistics.  For example, the Party membership stands at 2.75 lakh.  There has been an increase of 11 per cent from the 20th conference.  The Bengal unit of the CPI(M) boasts of 26,000 Party branches and 1770 local committees, 309 zonal committees, and 19 district committees.

The number of district committee members stands at 1312.  The average age of the district committee members is 55 years.  The oldest district committee member is of 88 years, and the youngest, of 25 years.  The district committee comprises between 39 and 86 members.  Of the district committee members, 561 are party whole timers, and there are 118 women among the district committee membership.

602 delegates, 124 observers, and 32 honorary delegates will attend the state conference.

The draft document on the Bengal LF government identifies the increase in the rate of growth of the state domestic product compared to the national average despite having to negotiate through a period of national economic predicament.  The draft document discusses, among other things, enhancement of the state’s income and assets, the rigorous safeguarding of the people’s interests, the strengthening of mass initiative as part of the developmental process, and the augmentation of the infrastructure.

The Left front government will continue to work for the poorest of the poor as an area of priority as before.  The agricultural sector would be further widened and strengthened.  Planned industrial development and urbanisation will be organised.  Gender inequality will be fought against, as an area of priority.

Concluding the state committee meeting, Anil Biswas noted that the Bengal unit of the CPI(M) would further unify the Party, expand its mass base among the working people, struggle to change the correlation of class forces, and enhance the level of political consciousness of the Party members towards creating a better Party in terms of quality and quantity in the days to come.