People's Democracy

MAHARASHTRA

CPI(M) Holds Successful Level State Party Class

Ashok Dhawale

ON July 24, 2011, the third one-day state level party class in as many years was successfully organised by the CPI(M)’s Maharashtra state committee at the Adarsh Vidyalaya in Mumbai. It was attended by 393 leading comrades from 27 districts of the state. This was the biggest and most representative attendance in any state class so far. The participants comprised members of the party’s state and district committees as well as wholetimers of the party and the mass organisations led by it. All the participants had been provided copies of the resolution recently adopted by the party’s state committee on “Review of Work Done and Tasks for the Coming One Year.”

The earlier two state level party classes were held in July 2009 and October 2010 respectively. The two subjects in the July 2009 class were the Lok Sabha election reviews of the Central Committee and the state committee. The two subjects in the October 2010 class were the Central Committee resolution on the rectification campaign and the reporting of the extended meeting of the Central Committee at Vijayawada. These state level party classes have immensely helped in forging a unified understanding on all these issues among leading party cadres in Maharashtra. The question-answer sessions have been an important and integral part of all these party classes, helping to clear whatever doubts the cadres had .  

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury, MP, took two sessions in this class. In the first session, he placed the Central Committee’s review on the recent state assembly elections in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamilnadu and Assam. He said that the party would learn from, and correct, its mistakes and would once again re-forge its links with the people. While concluding the review, he spoke of the grim situation in West Bengal, where the party and the Left were under attack from TMC goons who were in alliance with the Maoists and all other reactionary forces. He expressed confidence that the party and the Left would unitedly overcome the present adverse situation. In this context, he stressed the need for concerted efforts to increase the strength of the party and the Left all over the country.

In the second session, Sitaram Yechury outlined the current political challenges before the country, with special reference to the mega corruption scams of the UPA-2 regime, the neo-liberal economic policies of this government and the threat of terrorism and communalism. While analysing the scourge of corruption, he said that it was not merely a question of the moral degeneration of some individuals in high places; it was a question of the degeneration caused by the entire neo-liberal economic system, which had led to the creation of a thoroughly corrupt nexus between big business, bourgeois politicians and bureaucrats. It was only the Left, he said, that had remained untainted and therefore had the moral and political stature to lead a concerted anti-corruption movement across the country. He also said that this movement must be dovetailed to the struggle on burning issues of the people.

A special and enthusiastic session in this party class was devoted to handing over to Sitaram Yechury the first instalment of Rs 6.58 lakh collected as the West Bengal Solidarity Fund from the party and mass organisations in Maharashtra. An on-the-spot fund collection was made from the participants of the class itself and it came to Rs 28,652. (See the box alongside.)

In the concluding session of the class, CPI(M) state secretary Dr Ashok Dhawale placed the decisions of the state committee meeting that had concluded the previous day under the guidance of Polit Bureau members Sitaram Yechury and K Varadha Rajan. He briefly outlined the main points of the resolution “Party Rectification in Maharashtra” that had been adopted. He reported on the decision to set up broad-based forums to increase the party’s influence among the dalits, adivasis and minorities. He set out the schedule of party conferences at all levels that had been decided. Due to the statewide local body elections from December 2011 to March 2012, it has been decided to hold the party’s state conference at the end of March 2012, at Akole in Ahmednagar district, a relatively new and vigorously growing centre of the party. He reported the decision to hold the first-ever statewide study class and workshop for wholetimers of the party and mass organisations in Mumbai from November 1 to 3, 2011. The entire party in Maharashtra, he said, must now bend its efforts in the next few months to make a success of the following three tasks: 1. The party’s rectification campaign, 2. Party conferences at all levels, and 3. political campaign for the ensuing local body elections.   

At the outset of the class, CPI(M) state secretariat member and Mumbai district secretary Mahendra Singh welcomed the participants. State secretariat member Manohar Muley placed the condolence resolution. State secretariat members Ajit Abhyankar and ex-MLA Narsayya Adam chaired the two sessions respectively. Narsayya Adam made a spirited concluding speech in which he called upon the participants to work with grit and determination to strengthen the party in the state. State secretariat member and ex-MLA J P Gavit and Mumbai secretariat member Shailendra Kamble proposed the vote of thanks.

The CPI(M)’s Mumbai district committee, party volunteers from Mumbai and the management of Adarsh Vidyalaya (Kerala People’s Education Society) had spared no efforts to make excellent arrangements to ensure the success of this state level party class.

A sum of around Rs 50,000, being the amount for 250 subscriptions to the party weeklies Jeevanmarg, Loklahar, People’s Democracy and The Marxist, was collected in this party class. There was also a good sale of books worth Rs 12,000 at the two bookstalls of the party and progressive literature that had been set up by the CPI(M) and by the AIDWA at the venue.