BENGAL

CPI(M) Plans Statewide Mass Movement

B Prasant

THE month of September shall see a statewide movement that the Bengal CPI(M) will organise based on a 20-point charter of demands which itself is built on the call given by the central committee for food, land, and employment.  The state committee of the CPI(M) meeting on September 21 at Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan resolved to organise the statewide mass movement.

State secretary of the Bengal unit of the CPI(M), Anil Biswas explained in his address to the meeting, which was presided over by Biman Basu, the political situation and the Party programme. Jyoti Basu was present at the meeting. Fifteen state committee members took part in the discussion.

The central committee of the CPI(M) has called for a nationwide movement for food, land, and employment, and a general strike will be organised under the aegis of the central TU’s on September 29.  The CPI(M) has supported the strike action.  Support has also been forthcoming from the National Platform of Mass Organisations (NPMO). The campaign in support of the strike is well under way in Bengal.

More than a lakh of copies of booklets published on food, public distribution system, land, and employment have been sold.  Conventions in support of the strike call have been held at the level of the districts and at various other levels involving the mass organisations.

In this background, said Anil Biswas, a state-level mass convention will be held on September 7 at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata. Between September 7 and 26, meetings, rallies, and campaign-drives will be organised across Bengal.  Between September 21 and 27 badges enshrined with the demands of the movement will be worn by the people. Marches and processions will be organised statewide on September 27.  The state committee has called upon every unit of the CPI(M) in Bengal to participate in the movement with a specific schedule of programme.

COUNTER DISRUPTION IN NORTH BENGAL

Taking up the issues affecting the three districts of north Bengal – Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Coochbehar – the state committee resolved that the Bengal CPI(M) would launch movements and involve the mass of the people in the effort to safeguard law and order, people’s unity, and democracy.  In particular, coord-inated movements will be built up against the secessionist forays in the three districts of north Bengal.

Anil Biswas said that in the north Bengal districts, the anti-Left Front reactionary forces of separation were active in fomenting turmoil and disruption.  The state committee noted that in Coochbehar, the Kamtapur People’s Party (KPP) had little influence beyond causing a few isolated incidents of disarray.  They have desperately latched on to new tactics that includes the call for a separatist ‘greater Coochbehar.’  The district unit of the CPI(M) has been engaged in effectively countering the falsehood being sprouted by the KPP on this issue.

In Jalpaiguri, pointed out Anil Biswas, the KPP had earlier launched grievous attacks on the CPI(M) workers and that the CPI(M), reinforced in its resolve to maintain unity, integrity, and peace, successfully led the struggle against these attacks.  “The death of a martyr is never in vain.  The influence of the KPP has gone down sharply.  Many young men and women have come back to normal life after leaving the KPP and surrendering arms.  This was brought about by the initiative of the CPI (M) and the Bengal Left Front government.  However, the democratically conscious people will adequately counter fresh efforts at disrupting the situation and dividing the people”, said Biswas.

In Darjeeling, the GNLF supremo Subhas Ghising has been speaking in many voices and putting up a bewilderingly wide variety of demands.  The Bengal Left Front government, the CPI(M) believes, has been engaged in taking cautious and guarded steps for the sake of maintaining peace in the hill areas.  The CPI(M) is in the midst of organising movements in the hills and in the plains based on the demands of the people. The programme will continue giving full respect to the question of identity.

PARTY EDUCATION

A carefully planned drive has been initiated over the past several months towards the enhancement of the level of political consciousness of the people.  The deliberations of the Party congress and the Bengal state unit conference have been reported on in the units of the CPI(M).  The CPI (M) document ‘On Certain Policy Matters’ and ‘Left Front government and Our Tasks,’ have been explained at various levels of the Party. 

Party educational discussions have been held on such issues as the 60th anniversary of the triumph against fascism, and the struggle for democracy on the 30th year of the internal emergency. Booklets on the subjects have been published.

The interest evinced by the Party members in the ideological campaign has been marked, and the Bengal CPI(M) shall assiduously continue with Party education.  In this connection, Anil Biswas said that the Scrutiny Report of the Party members showed that there were 2,77,728 Party members in Bengal. There has been a marginal increase in the number of women Party members.

The drive adopted at the last Party conference about inclusion of young men and women in the Party has continued and in a planned manner. The individual evaluation of the Party members is going on.

The Bengal unit of the CPI(M) has adopted an expanded and planned programme to further strengthen the ongoing literacy campaign in the state. All the mass organisations will be involved in the programme, said Anil Biswas.

The issue of industrialisation and land utilisation, said Anil Biswas, came up for discussion in the state committee meeting.  The task of identifying land parcels for industrial purposes is going on.  The task will not be devoid of discussions with the people’s representatives of the concerned areas, be they of the SUCI, the Congress, or the Trinamul Congress.  In utilising land for industrial growth, it has been decided to use as little of three-crop land parcels as possible.  The issue will also be kept in mind while setting up industrial taluka and industrial satellite townships.

COUNTERING MAOISTS

The state committee has adopted a five-point programme to counter politically the activities of the anarchist Maoists in a few of Bengal’s districts.  The ideological campaign against the anarchist politics of the Maoists have already commenced in the state under the aegis of the CPI(M).  Anil Biswas has written a long essay in the Bengali theoretical journal of the CPI(M), Marxbadi Path.  

The Maoists who have killed several Party workers are keen to utilise the base in states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, and Andhra Pradesh to intrude into Bengal.  They are in close link with the separatist outfits operating in northeast India.  The aim here is to disrupt the situation in Bengal as the run up to the 2006 assembly elections starts. The political outfits of the ruling classes will utilise the Maoists as a façade to get their dirty work done. A section of the corporate media is willing to provide the Maoists with a suitable profile.  The right reactionary forces are keen to utilise the situation. 

To counter the developments, the Bengal CPI(M) has adopted a five-point programme:

•  The Maoists will be countered ideologically

• Political-organisational efforts will be made to isolate the Maoists from the masses

• The people must be cautioned about the Maoists programme, its aim and purpose, through large-scale mobilisation

• A stronger and keener campaign-movement must be launched based on the economic demands of the working people

• More emphasis must be attached in the backward areas to issues like creation of man-days, total health, total literacy, and self-help groups while implementing Panchayat-based schemes.