INDIA'S
CPI(M) CALLS
FOR STRONGER LEFT UNITY
(The
following article is from
the February 1-15,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
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By B. Prasant, PV correspondent in India
In the draft political resolution to be discussed at its 19th Congress,
the Communist Party of India (Marxist) calls for a farther
strengthening of Left unity across the country to help the ongoing
struggle against imperialism, communalism, and terrorism. The Party
Congress will be held in Coimbatore, in the southwestern state of
Kerala, starting in late March. About 800 delegates will take part,
with the largest contingent from Bengal, where the CPI(M) has been the
major force in that state's Left Front government for three decades.
The CPI(M) is critical of the Congress-led UPA
government in Delhi, but does not stand for withdrawal of support at
the present juncture, since that would allow the religious
fundamentalists of the BJP-RSS to return to office. (These political
forces are based on the divisive and reactionary concept of India as a
"communal" Hindu nation - Editor.)
There has been a strong debate within the
CPI(M)'s provincial units for some time about the raison d'être
of continuing to lend political support to the Congress in the union
[federal] government.
The draft resolution emphasises that "there is
no alternative to the bourgeois-landlord system's policies but the Left
Democratic Alternative." The CPI(M) "will endeavour to build" a
stronger "Left and democratic platform, which can meet the aspirations
and defend the interests of all sections of the working people."
The resolution robustly defends the decision
of the Central Committee of the CPI(M) to continue supporting the
increasingly marginalised and anti-people Congress-led UPA governance
at the federal level. The document takes cognizance of the
political-ideological difference between the BJP and the Congress,
underlining that the CPI(M) considers the latter as a secular bourgeois
party, though the Congress is notorious for vacillation when the
communal forces take the offensive.
The CPI(M), however, leaves no doubt that it
will combine its support for the UPA regime in Delhi with "appropriate
tactics" for further isolating and defeating the BJP. The caveat is set
in place firmly that the CPI(M) "will not enter into any alliance or
united front with the Congress."
Noting the worsening political and economic
situation of the country - unemployment, food shortages, growing
communal, sectarian, and terrorist violence - the CPI(M) demands an
alternative to the Congress and BJP-led combinations. In the CPI(M)'s
opinion, the Left must take the initiative in this regard.
For this to be a ground-level practicality, it
is necessary to forge a Left-led third alternative to the mainstream
political parties. Such a platform must be based on a consistent
anti-communal outlook; it must address the problems faced by the
people, as a strong political advocate of every kind of pro-people
economic measures, while fighting the onslaughts of imperialism-driven
globalisation and liberalisation.
The CPI(M) believes that to be a viable
political proposition, any "third alternative" must make provisions
also for social welfare and for strengthening the public distribution
system of commodities of common consumption; and it must be a
consistent defender of national sovereignty as well as an advocate of
an independent ("non-aligned") foreign policy.
Speaking about Left unity, the CPI(M) is aware
of the situation in Bengal, where there have been varying forms of
dissenting views of some Left Front constituents, like the
Revolutionary Socialist Party and the Forward Bloc, over the Bengal LF
government's policy of industrialisation.
Envisaging the tough battles ahead, the CPI(M)
has called upon the Bengal unit of the Party to take the lead, as the
strongest contingent of the Left in the country, to ensure that the
Left Front is strengthened and not weakened in the days to come.
The draft political resolution leaves no doubt
that the CPI(M) stands fiercely opposed to India emerging as the
"junior strategic and logistics ally" of US imperialism. In mobilising
the Indian people against the hegemonic forays of US imperialism into
the political-economic fabric of India, the CPI(M) will continue to
strengthen the worldwide anti-imperialist struggle for multi-polarity.
The CPI M) has identified the following
task-based slogans for the Party Congress:
* struggle to defend national sovereignty, resist the neoliberal
policies, defend the interests of the working people, and work for
alternative policies.
* spare no effort to isolate the BJP-RSS combine who spearhead the
communal forces in the country.
* mobilise all the patriotic and democratic sections to thwart US
imperialist designs to convert India into its strategic ally.
* champion the cause of the dalits, tribal people, women, minorities,
and other oppressed sections for social justice.
Found
at:
http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint11/11_INDIA'S_CPI(M)_CALLS_FOR_STRONGER_LEFT_UNITY.html