CPI(ML) HOME Vol.10, No. 50-52 25-31 DEC 2007

The Weekly News Bulletin of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)(Liberation)

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In this Issue

Clarion Call of the CPI(ML)’s Kolkata Congress:
People’s Resistance, Left Resurgence

The Eighth Congress of the CPI(ML) has been held successfully in Kolkata. Held in the 150th anniversary of the First Indian War of Independence and the birth centenary of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh, the 8th Congress boldly underlined the glorious anti-imperialist legacy of the Indian people. On the morning of December 10, a delegation of Congress delegates and guests from abroad went to Barrackpore to pay homage to the memorial of Mangal Pandey, the first martyr of 1857 and then returned to Kolkata to garland the statue of Bhagat Singh, whom the Congress recognised not only as rashtra nayak, the ever-inspiring national hero of the Indian people but also as a great communist pioneer. And then on the eve of the Congress, delegates and guests all assembled in a mass convention that denounced imperialism as a “War on Freedom, Democracy and Development” and resolved to resist imperialism in every sphere of life.
Attended by more than 1200 delegates, observers and guests, the 8th Congress was much bigger in scale than all the previous Congresses of the Party, four of which had to be held in extremely challenging underground conditions. Apart from discussing and adopting the Political-Organisational Report placed by the outgoing Central Committee, the Congress also adopted three specific resolutions dealing with the current international situation, developing national situation and the raging agrarian crisis. The Congress also updated the Party’s General Programme as well as the Agrarian Programme after fifteen and twenty-five years respectively and thus enriched the Party’s strategic understanding regarding the Indian society and the ongoing pattern of narrow and predatory capitalist development overshadowed by both stubborn feudal remnants and imperialist dictates and interests.
Several key themes have emerged from the Congress deliberations. In order that the CPI(ML) can intervene more powerfully in the deepening agrarian crisis it was resolved that the Party must now pay more attention to the peasant front alongside the core revolutionary agenda of mobilising the rural poor in militant struggles. If neo-liberalism is wreaking havoc in the countryside, impoverishing and expropriating sizeable sections of the peasantry and pushing people to suicides and starvation deaths, revolutionary communists must organise and lead a powerful counter-offensive by these victims of neo-liberalism. Signs of a massive rural unrest are already visible in almost every corner of the country and the 8th Congress of the CPI(ML) has called upon the entire Party to prepare in every way for the impending storm of people’s resistance.
The Congress also discussed other major aspects of the current situation – large-scale destruction of jobs and livelihood in urban India, the growing shadow of US imperialism on India’s foreign policy and the systematic assault on democracy by every organ of the Indian state. The closure of old labour-intensive industries, the growing corporate takeover of the entire service sector, and commercialisation and privatisation of key sectors like education and health have pushed large sections of the urban population into a life of growing hardship and insecurity. And as real life becomes more miserable and insecure for more and more people across the country, the ruling elite keeps selling the ‘dream’ of turning India into a US-sponsored regional power riding high on nuclear energy and a soaring Sensex! The more the people are deprived of their basic democratic rights and divorced from resources that belonged and must belong to them, the louder gets the rhetoric of democracy and empowerment!
Such a situation definitely calls for a powerful Left and democratic movement in defence of land and livelihood, liberty and dignity – individual as well as national. But the growing derailment and degeneration of the CPI(M)-led government in West Bengal, especially the arrogance and audacity with which the CPI(M) leadership have sought to justify their policies and conduct regarding Singur and Nandigram have tarnished the image of the Left and may push the democratic forces away unless there is a resurgence of the real Left. The successful conclusion of the Kolkata Congress and the massive turnout at the December 18 rally has sent out that message of Left resurgence at a most appropriate juncture. The Congress did not merely symbolise ideological, political and organisational consolidation of the CPI(ML), it held out the promise of a resurgent Left forging closer ties with broader democratic forces to save India from becoming a neoliberal laboratory and a strategic pawn of Washington.
A Congress of Great Resolve and Big Push Forward
CPI(ML)’s 8th Party Congress began in Kolkata on December 10, 2007 with the paying of tributes to the anti-imperialist legacy of the 1857 war of independence and revolutionaries in the freedom struggle. Leaders and activists from Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Britain and Australia also joined Party leaders in garlanding statues of Mangal Pandey at Barrackpore and Bhagat Singh in Kolkata.
Among those who paid floral tributes to these martyrs were CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Secretary of the Bangladesh Workers’ Party Saiful Haque as well as four other activists of the same party, Sue Bolton, National Secretary of the Democratic Socialist Platform (DSP) Australia, Tint Shwe, exiled Member of Parliament and pro-democracy activist of the National League of Democracy (NLD) Burma, Amrit Wilson from the South Asia Solidarity Group, Great Britain, and leaders of CPN(UML) from Nepal.
The city streets were decorated with colourful banners and festoons declaring resistance to US imperialist offensive against India’s freedom, and calling for all revolutionary communists to unite and oppose CPI(M)’s betrayal of the Left movement.
These tributes to the martyrs of the freedom struggle were followed by a mass Convention on ‘Imperialism: War on Freedom, Democracy and Development’ at Mahendra Singh Hall (Mahajati Sadan) in Kolkata. The Convention was addressed by noted writer and activist Arundhati Roy, poet Navarun Bhattacharya, noted theatreperson Bibhas Chakraborty, economist Amit Bhaduri, Amrit Wilson of SASG, Britain, and Comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya. Jayant Rongpi conducted the proceedings.
On the morrow of the highly successful convention, the delegate session started in the same hall in the morning of December 11. Veteran PB member Ram Naresh Ram hoisted the red flag outside the hall while the General Secretary and other Party leaders representing different states, mass organisations, departments etc as well as guests placed floral wreaths at the martyrs' column. The indoor session began with the presentation of the "internationale" in an exquisite ballet form.
After the formation of a 11-member presidium headed by PB member Ram Jatan Sharma, delegates from fraternal parties and other guests greeted the house with brief, warm speeches.
At the outset of the delegate session, the Congress adopted a Condolence Resolution paying tribute to all the comrades who have been martyred or who have passed away since the last Party Congress, and observed a minute’s silence in their memory.
The Congress passed a resolution emphasising the relevance of the legacy of Bhagat Singh and 1857 for anti-imperialist resistance today.
Several documents: Resolutions on the National Situation and Our Tasks, on the International Situation, on the Agrarian Crisis and the Way Out, as well as the updated Agrarian Programme and General Programme of the Party, were presented in delegate sessions from December 11 to December 15 and all were duly adopted after detailed deliberations. The house unanimously elected a five-member Central Control Commission comprising of Rajaram, Chairperson, Gita Das, Harendranath Barthakur, Devendra Singh Chauhan and M. Ramaswamy.
The outgoing CC proposed a 47-member panel for the election of a new CC, and that was carried unopposed. The new Central Committee includes Comrades 1. Dipankar Bhattacharya, 2. Swadesh Bhattacharya, 3. Ram Naresh Ram, 4. Kartick Pal, 5. DP Buxi, 6. Nand Kishor Prasad, 7. Akhilendra P. Singh, 8. Rubul Sharma, 9. Ram Jatan Sharma, 10. Arindam Sen, 11. B B Pandey, 12. Ramji Rai, 13. Swapan Mukherjee, 14. Dhirendra Jha, 15. Rameshwar Prasad, 16. Srilata Swaminathan, 17. Kumudini Pati, 18. Meena Tiwari, 19. S. Balasunderam, 20. S. Kumarswamy, 21. V. Shankar, 22. N. Murthy, 23. Maleshwar Rao, 24. Bangar Rao, 25. Kshitish Biswal, 26. Partha Ghosh, 27. Jayanta Rongpi, 28. Rajendra Pratholi, 29. Prabhat Chaudhry, 30. Krishna Adhikari, 31. KD Yadav, 32. Amar, 33. Saroj Chaube, 34. Kunal, 35. Shubhendu Sen, 36. Ibnul Hasan Basroo, 37. Janardan Mahato, 38. Mrinmoy Chakravarty, 39. Kavita Krishnan, 40. Sanjay Sharma, 41. Manoj Bhakta, 42. Kalyan Goswami, 43. Abhijit Mazumdar, 44. Sudhakar Yadav, 45. Rajaram Singh, 46. Bahadur Orao and 47. Rajaram, Chairperson, Central Control Commission, as the ex-officio member. The CCMs then re-elected comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya as the general secretary.
On 16th, comrades from fraternal parties and organisations delivered speeches conveying their impressions and expressing solidarity in struggle.
Volunteers who worked days and nights on end to make the Congress a great success then took the stage one by one and received mementos from the GS. The curtains came down on the biggest all India Congress in the Party's history with a short speech by comrade Dipankar Bhattacharya where he called upon the delegates to face the challenges ahead on the way to become the biggest party of the people.
Paschimbanga Ganasanskriti Parisad, Jansanskriti Manch and Sodou Assam Janasanskriti Parisad organized an all-India cultural conference on 16th and 17th December at historic Esplanade in Kolkata in which cultural teams from Assam, Karbi Anglong, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Punjab, and Bengal performed songs, plays and dances. Their performances uphold the slogan of the conference “culture of creation, culture of resistance, culture of people”. The conference sketches out the panoramic scape of diverse cultural outfits of the nation that hold the revolutionary charge of people’s culture. Ramji Rai announced the inauguration of the conference from the open-air stage renamed as Hemango Biswas Manch on 16th afternoon.
The 8th Party Congress Culminated in a massive all-India rally for ‘People’s Resistance, Left Resurgence’ at Shahid Minar in Kolkata on December 18, on the death anniversary of the former Party General Secretary Comrade Vinod Mishra. The Rally had the main slogan of ‘Land, Livelihood, Democracy and Dignity’. The Rally was addressed by the CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, West Bengal State Secretary Kartick Pal, Communist Party of Nepal (UML) General Secretary Madhav Nepal, General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Bangladesh Saiful Haque, National Secretary of the DSP, Australia, Sue Bolton, Subba Singh, leader of the Punjab Kisan Union who was formerly with the CPI(M), Kanwalpreet Pannu, leader of Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, Punjab, as well as Medha Thatte from the Lal Nishan Party (Leninist).
The newly elected Central Committee held a meeting on December 19 in Kolkata, after the conclusion of the Party Congress to elect the new Politburo. The CC elected a 11-member Politburo comprising Comrades Dipankar Bhattacharya, Swadesh Bhattacharya, Kartick Pal, DP Bakshi, Nandkishore Prasad, Ramjatan Sharma, Rubul Sharma, Amar, N. Murthy, Ramji Rai and S. Kumarswamy.
A Thumbnail Sketch of the Delegates’ Profile
1144 delegates participated in the Congress; three delegate comrades could not attend because they were in jail. 147 of the delegates were women. The largest chunk of delegates (36.62%) were between 31-40 years old, while 29.1% were between 41-50 years old and the average age of the delegates was 43.27 years. 14.94% of the delegates had received primary education only; 21.06% had received up to secondary education and 16.69% up to intermediate level; 24.03% were graduates and 11.71 were post-graduates; and 3.4% had no formal education. A large section of the delegates came from agricultural labourer, poor peasant and middle peasant origins (11.01%, 21.85% and 19.93% respectively). 22.6% were deployed on the agricultural labour front, 15.9% on the trade union front.
This time, it is significant that the majority of delegates – 57.95% - were attending a Party Congress for the very first time; while 38.72% had attended the 7th Congress before this and 29.1% had attended the sixth Congress.
Out of the total 1144 delegates present in the House, 118 spoke on draft documents presented in various sessions.

Resolutions on 1857 and Bhagat Singh

Passed at the Inaugural Session of the 8th Congress of Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) 10-16 December, 2007, Kolkata

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of India's first war of independence in 1857, the CPI(ML) pays respectful tributes to the hundreds of thousands of men and women who heroically laid down their lives in the struggle to emancipate colonial India from the yoke of British imperialism. Far from being a revolt of a few disgruntled kings, queens and feudal lords, 1857 was a national uprising of peasants whether in soldiers’ uniforms or without, artisans and small traders, and other sections of the Indian people cutting across caste and creed. The great rebellion gave us the first dream of free India and also the first glimpse of a modern India in its embryonic stage.
The Party also pays homage to the memory of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh in his birth centenary and his comrades Sukhdev and Rajguru who kissed the gallows along with Bhagat Singh on 23 March 1931. While the Indian National Congress formed in 1885 with British blessings could never come to terms with the spirit of the First War of Independence, Bhagat Singh and his comrades resurrected the legacy of 1857 and gave it a firm anti-imperialist and socialist orientation. Bhagat Singh represented the conceptual transition from revolutionary nationalism to communism, developing a basically correct programmatic orientation of Indian revolution, identifying its basic class forces and creatively combining different forms of struggle and organisation to rouse the masses. The Party therefore respects Bhagat Singh as rashtra-nayak (leader of the nation) as well as a great communist pioneer.
The Eighth Congress of CPI(ML) vows to defend the revolutionary legacies of 1857 and Bhagat Singh against all attempts at suppression, distortion and misappropriation and renews the Party’s resolve to advance and carry these legacies to consummation.
Inquilab Zindabad!
Eternal glory to our immortal martyrs!

‘Surrender by Congress and UPA on Communal Violence, State Terror and Neo-liberal Economic Policy Gave Modi a Free Reign; Only a Powerful Left Movement and a Credible Third Force Can Challenge BJP in Gujarat’

CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya has said that the almost total capitulation by the UPA Government at the Centre as well as the Congress in Gujarat on the issue of state-sponsored communal violence, accompanied by the failure to offer any meaningful alternative to the adivasis, Muslims and rural and urban poor dispossessed by Modi’s brand of neoliberal ‘development’ were in a large measure responsible for the BJP’s victory in the Gujarat Assembly elections. Throughout Modi’s tenure, the Congress had maintained silence on the horrors of the 2002 Gujarat pogrom; and the UPA Government had failed to deliver on its promise of ensuring justice for the victims of communal violence. The last minute cryptic rhetorical flourishes by Sonia Gandhi failed woefully to compensate for the bankruptcy of the Congress on the question of offering a credible and consistent challenge to the communal fascism of the Sangh Parivar and BJP. Its reliance on rebels of the BJP to deliver votes further announced the Congress’ surrender on this issue.
Since the Congress has proved its bankruptcy, what Gujarat urgently needs is a powerful Left movement and a credible third force that is willing to challenge the communal forces head on and mobilise the poor and marginalised on issues of livelihood and survival, said Dipankar Bhattacharya. The CPI(ML) has made a small but encouraging beginning in this direction, he said, intimating that the CPI(ML) had contested on 7 seats, polling 7289 votes in the Kherbrahma seat in Sabarkantha district where the CPI(ML) is leading struggles of tribals against eviction from forest land and dispossession from water sources. CPI(ML) candidates polled 3031 votes in Meghraj; 2209 votes in Bulsar; 1123 in Umbergaon; and the young CPI(ML) candidate Amit Patanwariya polled 1045 in Maninagar against Modi, braving a violent mob attack by Modi supporters on polling day resulting in the arrest of the candidate, his father, brother and two supporters.
The encouraging response to CPI(ML)’s campaign despite its fledgling presence in the state is a sign that there is a real space in Gujarat for progressive, democratic, Left politics - and CPI(ML) is committed to consolidating this response and expanding this space in the days to come.

Edited, published and printed by S. Bhattacharya for CPI(ML) Liberation from U-90, Shakarpur, Delhi-92; printed at Bol Publication, R-18/2, Ramesh Park, Laxmi Nagar, Delhi-92; Phone:22521067; fax: 22518248, e-mail: mlupdate@cpiml.org, website: www.cpiml.org

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