(The following article is from the April 16-30, 2008 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By B. Prasant, PV correspondent in India

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has called for building a third political alternative to both the religious fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the centre-right Congress, both of which are also keen to make India serve the global interests of imperialism.

     The 19th CPI(M) Congress documents and the six days of discussions by delegates (March 29 to April 3 at Coimbatore), took note of the sustained efforts of the Communists and the Left to compel the Congress-run United Progressive Alliance federal government to adopt pro-people, especially pro-poor measures. These include the federal guarantee to offer the rural poor at least 100 days worth of work, and a move away from wholesale privatisation of the core sector of the economy and foreign direct investment in the retail trade.

     However, Congress has stubbornly stuck to its stand on a nuclear deal with the USA, and even allowed to US and its NATO allies to dictate terms to India on foreign policy matters. This has hardened the attitude of the CPI(M) and the Left to the point where the Left-Congress coordination committee meetings are no longer held.

     The agrarian crisis, inflation, unemployment, and rising inequalities have all led to popular discontent. The UPA government's failure to tackle these and other burning problems reflect its economic policies, which favour liberalization and privatisation and promote the interests of international finance capital.

     During the last three years, the CPI(M) and the Left have been taking up these issues. The nationwide agitation campaign led by the CPI(M) from August 16 to 30 in 2007 proved a great success in keeping the Congress under pressure. State units of the CPI(M) focused demands on curbing price rises, a rationing system for all, tackling the problems of farmers, prevention of foreign capital in retail trade, curbing unemployment, the women's reservation Bill in Parliament, the fight against communalism, and total opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal and other cooperation with the forces of imperialism.

     The successful struggle to block the nuclear deal should help the CPI(M) and the Left to rally other anti-imperialist forces to prevent a strategic alliance with the United States.

     There were two general strikes by the working class in the recent period, in September 2005 and December 2006. Both strikes took up the issues of privatization, disinvestment, and measures to defend the interests of workers, and both evoked a wide response among different sections of the working class. The general strikes were also marked by solidarity actions by organizations of peasants, youth, and students.

     The CPI(M) has been engaged in countering the reactionary, communal politics of the BJP-RSS combine in the political, ideological, and organisational spheres. This struggle cannot be won in the way the Congress party deals with the matter, by vacillations and electoral tactics and manoeuvres, the way it fought the Gujarat assembly elections. This underlines the necessity for the CPI(M) and the Left parties to fight consistently against all forms of religious fundamentalism, and to rally all other secular and democratic forces to defend the secular principle.

     The coordination between the four Left parties at the national level (CPI-M, Communist Party of India, Forward Bloc, RSP) increased substantially during the last three years, with meetings held regularly averaging once a month, and more frequently at certain periods. The necessity to adopt a common approach on the UPA government's policies and to take a common stand in the UPA-Left Coordination Committee was the basis of this coordination. Largely, the Left parties were able to formulate common positions on economic policies, foreign policy and on other political matters.

     On some policy matters, there were divergences, for instance on the Special Economic Zones (SEZs). The Left parties suggested amendments in the legislation, but later the RSP and the Forward Bloc stated that they were totally opposed to the SEZs being set up. The CPI has taken a position demanding changes in the law but also opposing the SEZs. On rising prices, the joint naval exercises and other issues, the Left parties gave joint calls and conducted joint actions.

     At its 17th and 18th Congress, the CPI(M) had clarified the concept of a Third Alternative, based on a common platform of policies that would emerge through the Left, democratic and secular forces working together in joint campaigns and struggles.

     The Third Alternative cannot be reduced to merely an electoral alliance. Bringing together political parties, regional and national, who are against both the BJP's religious fundamentalism and Congress party's mis-rule and pro-US stand, has resulted in the beginning of a process of political crystallisation of a Third Alternative at the national level. The CPI(M) believes that the future of Indian politics lies with the full-fledged emergence of a left-democratic alternative to both the Congress and the BJP.

     The 19th CPI(M) Congress called on the Party to take the lead in identifying with the aspirations and assertions of all socially and economically oppressed sections. Specifically the resolution mentioned:

* The cause of the dalits (the lowest rung of the caste system. including the untouchables), against caste oppression, making their demand for social justice a part of the common democratic platform;

* The rising consciousness and movement of women for equality and gender justice, viewing the women's question as not only a gender issue but a class issue;

* The struggle of the adivasis (tribal people) for land, access to forests, an end to the inhuman capitalist and feudal exploitation, and protecting their identity, cultural and linguistic rights; and

* All social causes, which help to fight obscurantism, socially regressive customs, and patriarchal and feudal practices.

     The 19th Congress discussed in detail the role of the CPI(M) in the Left-led governments in the states of Bengal, Kerala, and Tripura. The entire Party has to understand the role played by these governments, and the constraints they face. Failure to do so leads to unrealistic and exaggerated expectations.

     In a situation where these three states are advanced outposts and where the Party and the Left have been unable to advance further, it is unrealistic to expect the Left-led governments to initiate any basic changes. With the neo-liberal framework and offensive, the Left-led governments have been defensively responding to protect gains and to bring about some development and provide relief to the people. While running state governments, the policies and steps taken must be viewed in the light of the all-India tactical line and policies that the CPI(M) advocates.

     Organisationally, the CPI(M) has made steady progress. The Party's intervention in political and policy matters has been enhanced, and extensive all-India political campaigns have been organised. There has been a growth in membership of the Party and its mass organisations, and more attention has been paid to education. Circulation of People's Democracy has increased to the highest ever level with new editions being brought out from Chennai, Agartala, and Kochi. More agit-prop pamphlets and booklets been produced. More efforts have been made to take up issues concerning the dalits and tribal and minority sections.

     The 19th Congress urged strengthened efforts to build a powerful Communist Party, based on the principles of Marxism-Leninism, all over the country, taking appropriate organisational steps to solve the problem of unevenness in growth.

     The Congress, which concluded with a vast mass rally, re-elected Prakash Karat as the general secretary, along with a 16-member Political Bureau (where veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu is now an invitee member), a five-member Control Commission, and an 86-member Central Committee where former general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet is an invitee member.