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HE current drive to recruit agricultural labourers in Khet Mazdoor Sabha (KMS) in Bihar is being pursued under the guidance of a 4-point campaign launched by the Bihar State Committee of CPI(ML). The campaign, with a target of recruiting 10 lakh agrarian workers in Bihar Pradesh Khet Mazdoor Sabha, started from May 1, 2003 and it is scheduled to be completed by July end. By the end of June, while reviewing the second leg of the campaign, the State Committee noted that around 6.5 lakh labourers have already been recruited and almost every district has crossed the number it had reached at during the ‘Strengthen the Party’ campaign launched in 2000. (One of the six points on the basis of which this campaign was launched was recruiting agrarian labourers in Khet Mazdoor Sabha in large numbers).

Almost all of the districts have crossed the level of membership reached during the ‘Strengthen the Party’ Campaign of 2000. Bhojpur tops the list with over 1,10,000 members followed by Patna, Rohtas, Jahanabad and Nalanda successively, with membership ranging from 80,000 to 50,000 each. Then West Champaran, Darbhanga, Siwan and Katihar districts have already recruited members in the range of 30,000 to 40,000; Aurangabad and Muzaffarpur fall in 20,000 to 30,000 range and Samastipur, Kaimur, Nawada, Gopalganj, Gaya, Purnea and Buxar have recruited members in the range 10,000 to 20,000. Significant improvement has also been witnessed in Begusarai, East Champaran and Vaishali districts where around 5,000 members have been recruited. The campaign has received an encouraging response in Bhagalpur, Lakhisarai, Sitamarhi, Chapra, Jamui and Madhepura as well.

The recruitment drive has really picked up in the second phase of the 4-point campaign. Now this momentum has to be maintained till the last to fulfil the target of recruiting 10 lakh members in the KMS in Bihar.

During this campaign, the Party had to accomplish the dual task of building panchayat level structures of the KMS as well as the Party. Along with this drive, land movements and struggles on wage questions had also to be launched vigorously. And in the process, district conferences and the State Conference of BPKMS were to be held so as to pave the way for holding the national level conference of the All India Khet Mazdoor Sabha on 14-15 November at Arrah.

Some Outstanding Experiences:

For long Bhojpur has occupied an outstanding place in our Party work. In almost all our campaigns this district takes the lead, providing experiences which become the basis for guidelines for practice in other areas. During the 6-month long ‘Strengthen the Party’ campaign of 2000, around 80,000 members had been recruited in KMS in Bhojpur. This time too Bhojpur took the lead because the task of ideological political mobilisation had already been fulfilled by organising training camps at district and block levels on the “Agrarian Crisis and Agrarian Struggles’ chapter of the Political-Organisational Report of the 7th Congress. This encouraged the leading cadres to plunge in the drive immediately and by the time we organised a district level cadre convention at Arrah on 22 April this year, 15,000 members had already been recruited in the KMS. This served to provide concrete experience for discussing the problems related to the campaign before its state-wide launch on May 1. Moreover, the task of planning had also been accomplished by fixing specific targets and allocating concrete responsibilities.

Since May Day, all the leading cadres have been concentrating in some panchayat to fulfil the task. Our concentration at the Panchayat level has provided further insights into all aspects of the process at work at the grassroots level, linked with the Panchayati Raj system. Also in this process Party leadership could pay special attention to the panchayats where our Party work had stumbled into confusion and got ridden with internal differences, where local leaders had got isolated from common masses and inactivity had set in. With the intervention from above the Party work was brought back on the tracks, local organisation was activated and better results were achieved in the campaign.

In one such panchayat in Peero Block, the local leadership showed exemplary revival and some 5000 members were recruited to KMS by the local organisation within 6 days. Similarly in three panchayats of Garhani Block the General Secretary of KMS himself undertook the campaign, conducted meetings in one after another villages and as a result, 3400 members were recruited within a week by the local organisation. By now around 7000 members have been recruited in this block.

Issues such as irregularities in government welfare schemes, misuse of development fund allocated to panchayats, Indira Awas Yojna, Identity cards, central law for agricultural workers etc. were discussed and people were made aware of the fact that 60% of the development fund has to be spent on development of dalits. In some villages it came out that the number of agricultural workers had declined as a consequence of introduction of machines in agriculture. The recruitment team conducted house to house campaign in some of the villages, in others a mass meeting was called in which representatives from each agricultural labourer household came to register his membership. In some villages the recruitment team interacted with people who were earlier with the Party, but had developed discontent and gone over to RJD, Lok Janshakti Party led by Ram Vilas Paswan or BSP. Discussions were held with them and in most of the cases they joined KMS. Despite the fact that agricultural labourers were busy threshing wheat and it was marriage season, people showed enthusiasm to participate in the campaign.

In the meantime, significant struggles have also been conducted in Baraura, Barap and Baligaon villages of Garhani while the membership campaign went on. In Barap, where we had lost the post of mukhiya by a narrow margin, minimum wages were not being paid by the upper caste mukhiya in the construction works like brick-soling, digging drains or cutting soil. Labourers struck work and declared ‘no participation till minimum wages are paid’, and held a dharna before the BDO against the mukhiya. The work remained stopped for a week before the BDO, the overseer and the mukhiya arrived on the site and agreed to pay minimum wages. Despite the mukhiya enticing rural poor with Indira Awas Yojna houses, agrarian labourers have remained firmly on our side and the recruitment target has been crossed by 150%. A large mass meeting was held here on 24 June at panchayat level.

In Mahthin Tola of Baligaon panchayat, the project of brick-soling of the pathway from the main road to the village was taken up by the mukhiya. The contract has been usurped by one Ashok Kushwaha of the Samata Party. When the work was on the villagers found out that inferior quality bricks were being laid and 5000 bricks had already been set. In no time almost all of the villagers reached the spot, our comrades took the initiative and all the bricks were taken out and thrown away. The contractor reached the spot and tried to argue but the people were defiant and ultimately bricks of superior quality had to be laid on the pathway.

In Barap Panchayat, the road from Garhani to Manduri was being repaired but the contractor did not provide coal tar, as a result stone chips did not set on the road. People protested and stopped work. The contractor had to make a compromise and there has been improvement in the repair work.

In Tirojpur village of Karisath, dalit agricultural workers were mostly with Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) led by Ram Vilas Pawan. When a meeting was called for KMS membership recruitment, among others a ward member belonging to LJP also participated. People agreed to the necessity of organising agricultural labourers, but what was the necessity of Party and the red flag, they asked. The whole 34-year history of our Party in Bhojpur was explained to them, exposing the role of so-called champions of the interests of dalits and backwards, citing examples of their betrayal. The next day a good number of them joined KMS.

Often during the membership drive, debates on the politics of our Party are raised by our adversaries. Like in Mahmadpur village of Karisath Panchayat, debate on violence and non-violence arose. Some people argued from an RJD standpoint against the necessity of CPI(ML) politics. Party activists patiently and creatively explained our position and won over the majority of agricultural labourers. Wherever even a single activist or sympathiser stood firm, we could score a success.

In Patna rural district, which ranks next to Bhojpur, membership recruitment was below the target in the first leg of the 4-point campaign, i.e., in the month of May. The second leg was started on June 1 at Jarkha panchayat in Paliganj Block. A Panchayat level team of 8-10 members was formed which toured village to village. They encountered lot of uneasy questions posed by the villagers. Some people demanded avenging the killing of an Area Committee member. Some others raised issues related to irregularities in PDS and housing, because our comrade has won as panchayat representative from this panchayat. These questions were patiently explained. In the second leg, concrete planning and division of responsibility paid dividends. With a new enthusiasm the cadres went to those villages in the district under RJD and PWG influence and recruited 4,500 members.

In Jahanabad-Arwal district, around 15% of the members have been recruited from outside the periphery of our Party’s influence. Agrarian labourers mostly under the influence of People’s War Group and RJD have joined Khet Mazdoor Sabha (KMS) in Arwal, Jahanabad and Ghoshi Assembly Segments. This could be possible due to ideological-political mobilisation of cadres, who overcame the hesitation to go boldly beyond our area of influence. Significantly, in Alampur village of Jahanabad block, one Mirach Das who broke relations with PWG not only became a member himself but enthusiastically enrolled 58 members from his tola and undertook the task of recruiting another 50.

It was also observed that the membership drive among people outside our own base was more successful in areas coming under the periphery of impact of land and wage movements launched by our party, e.g., Koel village of Kaler Block, where some 350 agricultural labourers of Hardian village who were under the influence of PWG became members of KMS. Under the impact of the same movement around 200 agricultural labourers belonging to CPI base in Ismailpur village also joined KMS. In Awagilla village of Arwal, a branch secretary of CPI has joined our Party. As a result of his participation in the campaign some 150 members were recruited in three days.

We also saw in the campaign how taking class struggle within a community helps in promoting class unity, developing politicisation and spread of Party influence. In Kako Bazar, rural poor belonging to Paswan caste suffering oppression under Muslim feudal lords had joined BJP. The latter imparted communal colour to this contradiction and deployed VHP to mobilize them. However, some poor Muslims belonging to Quraishi caste joined our Party and fought against the Muslim gentry to win the facility of pathways for Paswan households, and moreover, the rural poor of the Ravidas community joined our Party. As a result all the poor belonging to Paswan caste who were earlier with BJP have joined KMS.

Thus the campaign has roused the whole organisation into vibrant initiatives and filled them with confidence to fulfil ambitious targets. This has also prepared the base for expansion of Party and giving a new momentum to mass struggles. ?