SRP PRESENTS POL-ORG REPORT, ORGANISATION PART

Sustained Struggles, Organisational Streamlining

Needed For Party’s Expansion

Naresh Nadeem

THIS time the political organisational (pol-org) report, presented by the central committee to the 18th CPI(M) congress, was divided into four parts. While Part I was a report on the “implementation of the political-tactical line adopted at the 17th congress” in the last three years, Part II was on certain policy matters and Part III on organisation. These three parts were printed together, while Part IV, that was a report on mass organisations led by the Party, was printed separately.

Polit Bureau member S Ramachandran Pillai introduced the third and fourth parts of the pol-org report in the evening session on April 8 and Sitaram Yechury, another Polit Bureau member, introduced Part II in the same session. Part I was, so to say, an extension of the draft political resolution that was introduced in the evening session on April 6, discussed in three sessions on April 7 and 8, and adopted before the pol-org report was introduced. 

Introducing Part III and IV of the pol-org report, S Ramachandran Pillai said the central committee had assessed the national and international situations in the last three years since the 17th congress (Hyderabad, March 2002) and reviewed the experience of implementation of the political tactical line in this period. The review was done in the light of five important tasks set by the last Party congress. These were as below: (a) strengthening the Party centre, (b) rapid expansion of the Party and mass organisations, (c) strengthening ideological work, (d) membership recruitment, functioning of auxiliary groups and branches, and (e) rectification campaign. The review not only underlined the achievements of the last three years but also identified the persisting shortcomings and pointed out the emerging issues to decide about the future organisational tasks.

EXPANSION OF PARTY

As directed by the 17th Party congress, the CC identified Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh as the priority states for concentration of efforts. Meetings were held with the Party leadership in these states and one-year plans worked out for implementation. Similar meetings were held regarding priority areas and districts in other states. The implementation of these plans was assessed after the expiry of the stipulated period.

The review showed the weaknesses continuing in the priority states. For example, Party membership at the all-India level grew by 9 per cent – from 7,96,073 to 8,67,763 – during the period 2001-04. But the corresponding growth in priority states was only 7.3 per cent (from 44,418 to 47,679) in the same period, i e below the national average. The corresponding growth in Hindi states was even lower: only 6.2 per cent. There has been some increase in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi, but the decline in Bihar, seen since the 16th congress, continues.

Insofar as membership of the mass organisations led by the Party is concerned, the membership of all the mass organisations, taken together, grew from 4,06,38,003 in 2001 to 4,91,31,964 in 2004 –– an increase of 84,93,961 or 20.9 per cent. This is higher than 8.8 per cent growth achieved between 16th and 17th congresses. But the increase in case of priority states was higher than the all-India average –– 22.47 per cent. It is another thing that the absolute increase of 3,20,832 (17,48,024 in 2004 as against 14,27,192 in 2001) was not that impressive.

These figures also show that the mass front membership was 56.61 times larger than the Party membership, though the situation varies from state to state.

In the Lok Sabha elections in 2004, the CPI(M) secured 2,20,70,614 votes that was roughly half of the strength of our mass organisations. Though the two figures are not exactly comparable, because the Party contests only a limited number of seats, it does underline the need of raising the political consciousness of the masses in our contact. This is all the more necessary in view of the decline in our vote share in certain states.

But one of the major problems confronting us since long – that of unevenness of growth – still continues. The combined Party membership in Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura, still accounts for 74.04 per cent of the total Party membership. This problem is further aggravated by the fact that while Party membership has grown in 18 states, it has declined in 8 states.

In sum, while discontent against the BJP government’s policies grew in the period under review, the Party has failed to channelise that discontent. The growth in membership figures does indicate the Party’s expansion, the states where we are strong account for a bulk of that growth. At the same time, there has been either paltry growth or a decline in many of the weaker states and areas.

DECLINE IN QUALITY OF MEMBERSHIP

The essence of the whole review exercise was like this: the reports of and discussions in state conferences show the new opportunities that have come up for the Party’s advance. In fact, the Party has been able to achieve expansion wherever planned and sustained efforts were made for it.

This fact underlines the need of correcting our methods of working so that the weaknesses and shortcomings are speedily removed and the Party moves forward.

One area of the serious problems to be tackled pertains to the decline in quality of Party membership. This ranges from the inactivity of a considerable section of members to the low level of their political and ideological consciousness as well as low organisational sense, which affects the tasks of organising agitations. Branches, the basic unit of the Party’s structure, are not properly functioning in several states. New entrants to the Party are not being properly trained and, as a result, are not able to rise above the feudal and bourgeois mentality that they inherit from their milieu. The dropout rate is very high in certain states. The lack of collective functioning is another serious weakness to be rectified.

The pol-org report of the 18th CPI(M) congress details these and some other weaknesses, and broadly identifies the steps to be taken in order to overcome them. In subsequent days, Party committees at various levels will further concretise these tasks and take efforts to implement them.

COMPOSITION OF MEMBERSHIP

Another problem area is that of the class and social composition of the Party membership, with emphasis on the share of women, scheduled castes, etc in it. In this regard, the pol-org report noted that there has been no substantial improvement in this regard since the last Party congress that had also examined this question. Giving statewise figures of the share of basic classes (workers, poor peasants and agricultural workers) in Party membership, the report noted that there was only a marginal increase in the share of these classes or even a positive decline in some states. This underlines the need of serious attempts to overcome the weakness.

Similar is the case with the share of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in our membership. As these are, socially and economically, the most exploited sections of our people, the Party has to step up its efforts to enlist members from these sections.

Nor is there a perceptible change insofar as the expansion of the Party’s influence among the Muslims is concerned.

The figures show that the bulk of membership in various states is in the 26-50 age group. However, the figures are not strictly comparable to those of the 17th congress where the age group slabs were different.    

As a big majority of members joined the Party after 1992, there is need to arrange for their political, ideological and organisational education.

The position regarding recruitment of women into the Party continues to be unsatisfactory. Our five major states account for 90 per cent of Party membership. But, in their case too, the share of women in membership ranges from 9.37 per cent in West Bengal to 20.11 per cent in Tripura. While Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand have poor representation of women in membership, the share of women is a paltry 1.31 per cent in Punjab. Overall, there is some increase in women’s share in Party membership (this share has for the first time gone above 10 per cent mark in the five major states taken together), but it is evident that we have still to traverse miles in this regard. Moreover, vigorous steps are needed to provide for political education and training to women members, and also to increase their representation in Party committees.

FUNCTIONING OF PARTY BODIES

In the last three years, the Party reviewed the functioning of branches on three occasions, and found some improvement in it in certain states. But the situation varies from state to state. Majority of the branches are properly functioning in some states but are inactive in many. This restricts the Party’s expansion. The 17th congress directive to hold periodic meetings of branch secretaries and train them was implemented only in some places. This area needs special attention.

The pol-org report also talked of evolving guidelines for organising local, zonal, area and taluk committees. The reviews of one-year plans revealed certain weaknesses in district committees’ functioning as well. In weaker states, the state committees have not properly tackled these weaknesses, or factionalism, individualism and other violations of democratic centralism. The idea behind selecting priority districts in priority states was to ensure greater attention on developing Party, mass movements and mass organisations. But some state committees continued their routine way of functioning.  

Some state committees are functioning effectively but there are problems in other states. In such states, the importance of a functioning state centre and collective functioning for the sake of intervention in political matters and Party building has not been adequately grasped. Nor does the state secretary in some states functions democratically and thinks he has a veto power over the opinions of other state committee or secretariat members. The central committee has been seized with the matter and gave concrete suggestions for improving the state level work.

ON CADRE POLICY, MASS ORGANISATIONS

While the five major states are giving attention to overcoming the shortage of cadres, as was enjoined by the 17th congress, problems in other states persists. In priority states, selection and development of cadres is not being done in a planned way, with organisational priorities in view. The task has been left to spontaneity. In some states, even the minimum needs of wholetimers are not being met.

Inadequate deployment of cadres for the new tasks was one of the main reasons for the slowdown in implementation of expansion plans.

In this regard, the pol-org report directed the central committee to help such state committees as are not in a position to pay wages for wholetimers. It also directed the Party bodies to pay special attention to selecting cadres from women, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and minorities. However, the selection and promotion of cadres should strictly be on the basis of their capabilities and performance.

The pol-org report also dealt with the issue of mass organisations, their problems and their relations with the Party. One notes that the central committee has issued its directives and guidelines in this sphere from time to time, but certain problem areas still remain. State committees have to pay priority attention to streamline and improve the working of various mass organisations.

Apart from the already existing organisations, some new mass organisations have also come up in the intervening period. Examples are an organisation of the disabled in West Bengal, seven organisations of weavers, potters, shepherds, etc in Andhra Pradesh and artisans’ organisations in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. These are helping the Party to reach out to the unorganised sections and their experience needs to be studied to find out whether and how their experience can be utilised in other areas.

Tokenism, however, is one of the major problems in the functioning of most of the mass organisations. No worthwhile propaganda is organised in many places and wider sections are not rallied on the issues affecting them. As a result, even the observance of all-India calls and state level calls becomes ritualistic and is not able to make any political impact.

There is also the need to intervene in the struggles that break out spontaneously. The weaknesses in taking up partial demands and local issues need to be remedied.

SOCIAL ISSUES & IDEOLOGICAL WORK

The first part of the pol-org report reviewed the experience of taking up social issues, particularly caste oppression and discrimination, in the last three years. Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have made special efforts in this regard. The task is important in view of the fact that caste represents social oppression as well as class exploitation. The Party and the mass organisations will also have to rally the poorer sections among the dalits and non-dalits on questions like land, wage, social security, job, institutional credit, health, education and the like.

The pol-org report specifically stressed the need for Party work in tribal areas where the RSS is trying to spread its net, sometimes successfully. Some advance has indeed been made in this regard but much of the work is still unplanned. Cadres have to properly identified and deployed in these areas. The new CC has to pay special attention to this area of work.

The report expressed apprehension over the continuing problems of consolidation and Party building. In this regard, it expressed concern over the dismal state of ideological work in weaker states, as reflected in the declining circulation of Party papers and scant attention to agit-prop work. The Party and mass organisations have also to wage sustained struggles against obscurantism and superstitions, and strive to develop scientific temper among the people.

RECTIFICATION CAMPAIGN

The state committees’ reviews showed that the observance of democratic centralism in Party functioning was far from satisfactory, and needs serious introspection. Factional and federal tendencies are adversely affecting collective functioning in the Party.

In this regard, the pol-org report dwelt at some length on the situation in the Party in Kerala, which has gripped the attention of the Polit Bureau and central committee for several years. The report noted the steps taken by the central leadership to tackle the factional squabbles in the state and unify the Party on basic principles. It said the new PB and CC should take appropriate steps to eradicate this evil and strengthen the Party’s unity in the state.

Since the 17th congress several state committees have taken steps to rectify the mistakes and wrong tendencies in maintaining communist norms. It has also been noted that the liberalisation policies are affecting our cadres and leaders who are falling prey to consumerism, status consciousness, etc.

Planned development in neighbouring areas, work in local bodies, fund collection and financial discipline were some other issues to which the polorg report drew the attention of the Party congress. It noted some improvement in parliamentary work but said the full potential of the Party’s parliamentary group needs to be effectively translated into actual work. The group’s links with the mass movement outside must be strengthened so that it can articulate the people’s concerns. The post-poll situation does provide new opportunities for the Party’s work in parliament.

The report also reviewed the functioning of the Party centre (Polit Bureau, its sub-committees, central secretariat and central committee), and outlined some of the concrete tasks the PB and CC will have to urgently perform in order to increase the Party centre’s intervention in the developing situation. 

The presentation of the pol-org report by S R Pillai also said the mass organisations would discuss the Part IV of the report at various levels, and chalk out action plans in order to enhance their intervention and reach more and more sections of our people. The presentation was remarkable because of the way it underlined the urgency of the tasks, the gravity of the challenges ahead and also the new opportunities that are unfolding and need to be grasped in clear terms. This was also one of the reasons why virtually also state delegations and those from mass organisations expressed broad agreement with the general tenor of these parts of the pol-org report.