21ST STATE CONFERENCE OF THE BENGAL CPI(M)

Strengthen Party Unity, Widen Mass Base,

 Work For The Poorest Of The Poor - II

B Prasant 

IN his important address to the conference, Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M) Prakash Karat said that internationally, US imperialism was on an aggressive mode. The offensive continues. An important redeeming feature of the international situation is that resistance to US imperial aggression is on the rise almost everywhere in the world. The present scene in Iraq bears out this contention.

While superior military might of the US allows it to organise aggressions, it is not able anywhere to sustain its hegemonic and one-sided control of the country/territory it occupies.  Prakash Karat noted that the contradiction between the imperialists did exist but not to the extent it had earlier when the USSR was there. There is conflict and cooperation among the imperialist powers at the present point of time.

The contradiction between imperialism and socialism certainly exists as demonstrated by the cases of Cuba and DPRK, in particular. In the meanwhile, the US carries out its unilateral declarations, sieges, blockades, and attacks.

The way to mobilise resistance to the US designs, said Karat, would be to organise anti-imperialist struggles and integrate the struggles with day-to-day movements and actions across the globe. The struggle against liberalisation and capitalist globalisation have produced a series of positive, pro-Left governments in many countries of Latin America, Prakash Karat who had of late visited Venezuela and met president Hugo Chavez, pointed out. 

The anti-globalisation struggles had brought out many strains within it, said Karat and referred to the World Social Forum. There are different varieties of political-ideological thinking and there are in the ranks of resistance, anarchists, Trotskyites, Christian churches, social democrats, and NGO’s as well as individuals who oppose US hegemony. The Communists must utilise the platform to give the anti-imperialist struggle the right direction for otherwise elements would band together to lead the movement astray and anti-globalisation would not become an anti-imperialism drive.

Responding to the queries of some delegates about the anti-imperialist role of the People’s Republic of China, Prakash Karat said that the Communist Party of China had chosen to concentrate on strengthening of the socialist system and on development for the moment. They have recently signed 16 instruments of agreements with Cuba. The emergence of China as a world power in the future will have a strong impact on the evolving of the international situation.

Turning to the national scene, Prakash Karat said that the CPI(M) and the Left chose to support the Congress-led UPA government, as a post-poll decision, to keep the communal and pro-imperialist BJP-RSS combination away from power.  The defeat of the BJP and its cohorts did represent a stop to the rightward shift in Indian politics that the 16th Party Congress had spoken about. 

The Common Minimum Programme, again, drawn up after the elections, represent a kind of compromise step and it is certainly not even a democratic document in its entirety, leave apart the issue of it being a Communist Party document.  It does contain certain important issues that are pro-people.  The CPI(M) and the Left has insisted from the beginning that the Congress should either implement the steps or be faced with countrywide movements and struggles.

The CPI(M) and the Left, said Prakash Karat, must use whatever political strength it had to push for implementation of the pro-people aspects of the CMP. Progress is possible if large countrywide movements could be organised.  The independent role of the CPI(M) would be to go beyond the CMP and struggle for the rights of the people, especially the poor.

Linking up of class-based issues with the CMP is necessary. The dictum to be remembered is that the Left-democratic front is the real and viable alternative to the bourgeois-landlord government that is the UPA set up.

A third alternative will not come if the CPI(M) wishes it. The CPI(M) would certainly like to have one but the reality is that an electoral understanding can never viably function as an alternative and remains a temporary phenomenon.  Third front has to be founded on some common basic policies.  As the political situation matured, said Prakash Karat, the time would come when the CPI(M) would be able to form and lead a third alternative. To set up a third front, pointed out Karat, the crucial element would be the independent strength of the CPI(M).  Confronting casteist fragmentation and building up a wide mass base, the CPI(M) has strengthen its organisation and forge ahead in states that adjoin Bengal.

Warning against the continuing danger of communalism, Prakash Karat said that the fight against the communal forces must not be counted in terms of electorally defeating them. The RSS as well as the BJP continue to be active in the rural as well as urban areas and are particularly active among tribals of Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan.  The Maoists, too, operate in tribal areas and need to be countered ideologically and politically.

Prakash Karat said that Bengal unit of the CPI(M) was the most advance contingent in the Party. The deliberations in the Bengal unit’s state conference shall have valuable contributions to make in the Party Congress.

On the role played by the Bengal Left Front government, in office for nearly 28 years, Prakash Karat said that the government was engaged in offering alternate policies on finance, employment generation, budgetary allocation, and that, in Bengal, for nearly 28 years, a Left-democratic programme could be implemented.

Yet, Bengal faces a difficult situation since it has to consider the development of political forces even as it struggles against globalisation and liberalisation.  The Bengal Left Front government, said Prakash Karat, continued to work towards a viable pattern of alternative governance that could serve as a model.

BISWAS’S RESPONSE TO THE DISCUSSIONS

Following the discussion on the two documents placed, the draft pol-org report and the resolution on the Left Front government and the tasks (see accompanying report), state secretary Anil Biswas said that the delegates’ participation had enriched the reports and that the delegates had principally highlighted the need to further strengthen the Party, to widen its mass base, and to overcome the weaknesses that yet remained.

Anil Biswas began by stressing the fact that the struggle against imperialism would continue to be organised in Bengal. Towards that end, a mass reception would be accorded to the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez.  The onslaught of capitalism and the war of aggressions by imperialism must be fought in an organised manner, taking the people with the initiative. He pointed in this matter to the socialist construction going on in countries like Cuba, China, Vietnam, and DPRK.

On the national situation, declared Anil Biswas, the delegates had generally agreed with the decision of the CPI(M) not to sign the CMP, and to extend conditional support to the Congress-led UPA government where the CPI(M) would stringently oppose all anti-people measures that the union government might undertake.  Biswas said that in the matter of the defeat of the right-wing BJP, a positive situation had developed following the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, affording the CPI(M) and the Left to grow further across the country.

The communal menace, said Biswas, was not related to the electoral scene.  It is trying to strike deep roots in the social structure, and seeking to bring within its evil ambit as many people as it can misdirect.  There was need all the way to be vigilant and active in the opposition to the BJP, the RSS, the VHP, and their cohorts.  Similarly, the CPI(M) must fight the separatist and extremist menace by waging a political-ideological struggle over and above the endeavours of the state Left Front government.  Work among the tribals must increase in an appreciable manner. In these directions, class struggles must be continued in an organised manner, along with movement for land, and struggle for employment.

The organisation of the Bengal CPI(M) must be augmented and the mass base widened. The CPI(M) must work more and more for the poorest of the poor. Party education must be emphasised at all levels of the organisation.  Special classes must be held for the members of the Panchayats and the municipalities, and other elected autonomous bodies. Any trend towards individualism and commandism, one often follows the other, must be fought stringently.

The Bengal CPI(M) has grown appreciably but the task of attracting more and more members of the basic classes to the Party must never be slackened. While the Party is developing well in the state, the rate of growth of the organisation among members of the tribes was not yet up-to-mark; this needs to be looked into and appropriate measures taken.

The CPI(M) must be made more unified and the qualitative standard of the Party members must be raised further as a continuous task, said Biswas.

With the municipal elections in 2005 and the Assembly polls in 2006, the CPI(M) must keep widening contact with the mass of the people and carry on the work of Party building.

CREDENTIAL COMMITTEE REPORT

The credential committee report showed an important statistical picture of the state conference.

Some of the salient points thus focussed upon were:

• There were 599 delegates present (out of the 602 elected).  There were 554 men and 45 women delegates.

• There were 84 state committee members, 468 district committee members, and 47 were from the state centre.

• Of the delegates, the average age was 57.12 years.  The oldest delegate at 91 years was Jyoti Basu; the youngest at 25 years was Kaushik Mishra.

• As far as class origins are concerned, 23 represented the working class, 6, agricultural labour, 72, poor peasants, 62, middle peasants, 26, rich peasants, 20, landlords, 5, small capitalists, 361, middle class, and 24, small businesses.

• Of the delegates, 87 have been inducted into the CPI(M) through the TU front, 137 through the kisan front, 78 through the youth front, 210 through the students’ front, 25 through the women’s front, 8 through the cultural front, 2 through the science front, 2 through the pioneers’ front, and 46 through other fronts.

• 363 delegates were Party wholetimers.  187 delegates worked in the TU front, 230 in the kisan front, 15 in the employees’ front, 8 in the students’ front, 7 in the youth front, 36 in the women’s front, 14 in the cultural front, 20 in the teachers’ front, 8 in the college and university teachers’ front, one in the doctors’ front, 7 in the lawyers’ front, 3 in the engineers’ front, 4 in the science front, 2 in the pioneers’ front, 8 in the literacy front, 15 in the Party journals and literature front, while 32 other belonged to other fronts.

• Of the delegates, Binode Das, member of the state committee had spent 4060 days in jail during his 7 prison terms.  Pradip Nath, district committee member of Coochbehar, had spent 2735 days underground.    

• There were among the delegates 20 MP’s, 33 MLA’s, 30 ministers in the LF government, 21 from corporations/municipalities, 25 from Zilla Parishads, 6 from Panchayat Samities, 2 from Gram Panchayats, and there were 12 others from other elected bodies.

JYOTI BASU’S CONCLUDING ADDRESS

In his concluding address to the conference, veteran member of the CPI(M) Polit Bureau, Jyoti Basu analysed the difficult political situation in which the Party Congress would be held.  The CPI(M) and the Left support the Congress-led UPA government, albeit critically.  “We,” said Basu, had always been against the Congress, except perhaps for its foreign policy and the endeavour towards nationalisation.”  Presently, the CMP does contain several welcome aspects, which the Congress has to implement: the CPI(M) and the Left would pressurise the Congress into doing it.  Big mass struggles will be launched across the land in support of this demand.

Underlining the responsibility of the CPI(M) in Bengal, Jyoti Basu said that the people of Bengal had elected the CPI(M) and the Left parties for six consecutive times, reposing their trust in the Left Front and the Left Front government.  “We must not let the people down in the days to come,” declared Jyoti Basu. 

The tasks of the day, said Basu, were to continue to work for the masses, and to isolate the communal forces.  The CPI(M) must also oppose the Congress, not just in Bengal but also elsewhere in the country.  The fact that the Congress often struck compromises with the people must be campaigned widely while fighting ideological battle with the forces of communalism. The Party must be strengthened and the work among the poorest of the poor further widened, concluded Jyoti Basu.