Plenum: Resolution on Organisation

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

 

Resolution on Organisation

Adopted by the Plenum on Organization

Kolkata, December 27-31, 2015

 

 

This Plenum on Organisation, convened as directed by the 21st Party Congress:

 

Resolves

to strengthen and streamline our Party’s organisational capacities to meet the current challenges by unleashing mightier people’s struggles to develop the independent strength of our Party in conformity with our adopted political-tactical line. This line is aimed at changing the correlation of class forces amongst the Indian people in favour of the Left and Democratic Front, the precursor to the People’s Democratic Front and advance towards the successful culmination of the People’s Democratic Revolution.

 

Underlines

the imperative to vastly develop our organisational capacities in order to accomplish these revolutionary objectives and emerge as the political party of the working class rallying all the exploited classes of our people:

o       Because the objective situation of the world capitalist crisis shows that no amount of reforms under capitalism can liberate people from intensifying exploitation. This can be done only through the political alternative of socialism.

o       Because we are the political party that has an alternative policy framework which will enable our people to realise their inherent potential and create a better India on that basis.

o       Because we are the political party that offers the Indian youth a vision of a better future. We are the Party which puts forward alternative policies to marshal our country’s resources to provide our youth with quality education, good health and sustainable employment.

o       Because we are the consistent political force that advocates and struggles for the unity of our multi-religious, multi-lingual, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic population against all efforts at sharpening communal polarisation and thwarting the RSS/BJP designs to impose their project of a rabidly intolerant fascistic ‘Hindu Rashtra’.

o       Because we are the Party that consistently fights against terrorism and fundamentalism of all hues. Majority communalism and minority fundamentalism feed and strengthen each other.

o       Because we are a Party that strives to abolish caste based untouchability, all expressions of discrimination and social oppression of all varieties.

o       Because we are a Party that steadfastly upholds the highest standards of political morality and launching struggles against corruption and moral degradation.

 

Notes

the concrete conditions of our times in which this resolve has to materialise:

n      The unfavourable international correlation of political forces that has shifted in favour of imperialism since the disintegration of the USSR and the socialist regimes in Eastern Europe.

n      The ongoing efforts to consolidate imperialist globalization under the leadership of international finance capital.

n      The accompanying anti-communist, anti-progressive ideological offensive in all spheres – political, economic, social, cultural, environmental etc. – aimed at depoliticisation of the people, especially the growing sections of the exploited classes.

n      The growing  popular people’s resistance in many countries, which, however, has not yet reached the levels of projecting the socialist political alternative by mounting the class offensive against the Rule of Capital.

n      The embracing of neo-liberalism by the Indian ruling classes and accompanied efforts to reduce India to being a subordinate ally of imperialism.

n      The consequent structural changes in our society, impacting different classes differently, warranting a change in our organisational methods for sharpening class struggles.

n      The rise of communal forces in India who have captured the central government and are controlling State power, seeking to undermine the secular democratic foundations of the Indian Constitution and to replace it with the RSS concept of ‘Hindu Rashtra’.

n      The aggressive pursuit of the neo-liberal agenda, intensifying the exploitation of the Indian people, combined with rabid communalism and growing authoritarianism.

n      The concerted attack by the gang-up of rightwing reactionary forces in our strongholds, particularly in West Bengal, through the politics of terror and intimidation and the need to strengthen our organisational resilience to thwart these attacks.

n      The urgent necessity to overcome our organisational weaknesses in terms of stagnation, if not decline, in the strength of our Party and mass organisations, its uneven membership composition and a sharp decline in our electoral strength.

 

Unlike our last Organisational Plenum held at Salkia in 1978, when the Party was on the ascendance in terms of its political influence in the country, today, we are meeting under adverse circumstances of a decline in our political influence. Under these circumstances,

 

The urgent need is

 

n      To rapidly increase our independent strength by adopting a mass line and our intervention capacities, strengthen Left unity and to forge the Left and Democratic Front not only as an electoral front but as a fighting alliance of forces for an economic, social and political change by isolating the reactionary ruling classes.

n      To effectively implement united front tactics to discharge the dual tasks of unity and struggle by developing joint movements, enabling us to approach sections of the exploited classes who currently are under the influence of bourgeois parties.

n      To employ flexible tactics to deal with swift changes that may occur in the political situation in accordance with our political-tactical line.

n      To set up joint platforms with various social movements, people’s mobilizations and issue based movements.

n      To dovetail electoral tactics to the primacy of building the Left and Democratic Front.

 

n      To strengthen class and mass struggles by:

o       Forging a broad front of agricultural workers, poor peasants, middle peasants, rural workers in the non-farm sections, artisans and other sections of the rural poor against the landlord-rural rich nexus.

o       Organising workers in key and strategic industries; organising contract workers in both the organized and unorganized sectors; establishing area-based organisations in coordination between trade unions, youth, women etc.

o       Organising the urban poor in the bastis/local areas; establishing occupation based neighbourhood-mohallah-basti committees.

o       Strengthening work amongst the middle classes particularly ideological work by the establishment of various fora like citizens forums, platforms to promote cultural activities/actions; scientific temper and others related to their life and work. Strengthening work in residential associations, pensioners associations and professional bodies.

 

To accomplish these objectives, the requirement is

 

n      To urgently strengthen the Party Centre by

o       Ensuring cohesion amongst the PBMs at the Centre, collective functioning, individual responsibility and regular check-up.

o       More participation of central leaders in campaigns, struggles and movements in the states.

o       Monitoring the implementation of organisational decisions and intervening wherever necessary.

o       Conducting periodical review of the work in the mass organisations in the Central Committee.

o       Ensuring Party schooling on a permanent footing. Encouraging all Party members to engage in self-study. The establishment of the Central School at the Surjeet Bhawan.

o       Making Party education a permanent agenda of the Party organisation.

o       Enlisting equipped cadres to man various departments.

o       Paying more attention to the priority states and urgently meeting the requirements of the Hindi-speaking states.

 

n      To effectively combine parliamentary and extra parliamentary struggles.

n      To combat the ideological onslaught against Communism and Marxism by global imperialism, its agencies and Indian reactionary forces.

 

n      To combat the ideological offensive of the communal forces by

o       Mobilising litterateurs, scientists, historians, cultural personalities and other sections of intellectuals.

o       Taking initiatives at the pre-school and school level by involving teachers and social organisations paying special attention to organise social and cultural activities to propagate scientific temper and secular values.

o       Evolving special activities to combat the penetration of communal influence amongst the exploited classes, dalits and adivasis.

o       Setting up of broad-based cultural platforms for propagation of progressive and secular values and cultural productions.  The trade unions and other mass organisations should also organize cultural and social activities in their localities.

o       Organising social service activities like health centres, educational coaching centres, reading rooms, relief work and so on.

o       Strengthening popular science and literacy movements.

 

 

Fulfill these tasks successfully by

 

n      Vastly improving the quality of Party membership by

o       Ending loose recruitment; identifying militants in people’s struggles and recruiting them through auxillary groups (AGs); renewal of Party membership based on the five Party Constitution criteria.

o       Regular functioning of the AGs and proper study of Marxism-Leninism to prepare their entry as candidate members.

o       Ensuring that all Party members participate in mass and class organisations.

o       Improving the class and social composition of the Party committees particularly the higher level committees.

o       Increasing the number of women Party members to meet the target of 25 per cent in the next three years.

o       Ensuring increased youth representation in the Party by orienting the Party’s programmes and activities towards attracting youth.

o       Implementing a proper cadre policy by identifying and promoting younger comrades and ensuring the entrusting of tasks on the basis of a collective assessment of concerned comrades.

o       Nurturing such cadre as Party wholetimers -- symbols of ideological conviction and sacrifice in the struggles for a revolutionary transformation.

o       Strictly ensuring a proper wage structure for the Party wholetimers and maintaining regularity of payment.

o       Strictly enforcing the payment of Party levy in accordance with the decided rates.

o       Organising regular mass fund collection drives as the main source for Party finances. Maintaining regular accounts of the Party and the mass organisations at all levels.

 

n      Ensuring a vibrant Democratic Centralism by

o       Ensuring proper branch functioning with regular meetings. This requires the nurturing and training of branch secretaries. Effective branch functioning is vital for maintaining live links with the people.

o       Improving proper functioning of Party committees at all levels.

o       Strictly implementing the organisational principle of collective functioning with individual responsibility and regular check-up in the Party as a whole. There should be a periodic review of the individual responsibilities assigned.

o       Sharpening the weapon of criticism and self-criticism.

o       Strengthening inner-Party democracy, with the leadership being attentive and responsive to the views and reactions of the lower units and Party members.

o       Countering wrong trends of federalism, subjectivism, liberalism and factionalism.  Combating the deviation of parliamentarism.

o       Conducting and reviewing the rectification campaign annually along with membership renewal. 

 

n      Building Powerful Mass Organisations by

o       Expanding the strength and influence of our mass organisations.

o       Further strengthening the independent and democratic functioning of the mass organisations by strictly implementing earlier CC resolutions.

o       Strengthening the all India and state centres of the mass fronts.

o       Paying attention to organizing and activising the primary units of the mass organisations.

o       Constituting Party sub-committees and fraction committees of mass organisations in states which do not have them now.

o       Ensuring the proper and regular functioning of these sub-committees and fraction committees focusing on Party building.

 

n      Taking Up Social Issues by

o       Championing the struggle against gender oppression, discrimination against the dalits, tribals, disabled and religious minorities, by the Party as a whole.

o       Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the various platforms that we have established to focus on the issues of the dalits, tribals, Muslim minorities and the disabled sections of our people.

o       Taking up simultaneously the issues of economic exploitation and social oppression – the two feet upon which stands the advance of class struggles in India.

 

n      Expanding our influence by

o       Strengthening the Party organisation and movements amongst the weaker states, particularly the Hindi speaking states.

o       Increasing our activities in the cultural sphere by strengthening the existing activities and establishing cultural groups in newer areas.

o       Revising list of priority states. In each state, identifying priority areas and fronts and paying proper attention to their development.

o       Building the capacities of Party units, under guidance of higher committees to pay constant attention to launch sustained local struggles on issues that agitate the people.

o       Strengthening the Parliamentary and other elected bodies’ Party committees to ensure effective interventions and reflection of extra-parliamentary struggles by raising these issues in elected bodies.

o       Holding regular Party schools and preparing a central syllabus, along with a list of essential reading for self-study.

o       Vastly improving the reach and quality of Party papers and publications and making special efforts to upgrade their form and content.

o       Paying proper attention to developing social media interventions as a force multiplier of the Party’s positions and views, carrying our message and opinions to larger sections of the people.

 

Therefore, essentially we must

n      Strengthen our links with the Indian people to empower ourselves to unleash mightier mass and class struggles.

n      Effectively adopt and implement the mass line of the Party to ensure the establishment of such live links with the people.

n      Focus on advancing the agrarian revolution, the axis of the democratic revolution, by forging unity in struggles of all rural exploited sections of people.

n      Strengthen efforts to develop the worker-peasant alliance.

n      Focus mainly on

o       Forging class and mass struggles on economic and social issues to widen the Party’s influence and to rally the Left and democratic forces.

o       Adopting a mass line and establish live links with the people.

o       Streamlining the organisation to build a revolutionary Party with quality membership of high quality.

o       Making special efforts to attract youth to the Party.

o       Waging the ideological struggle against communalism, neo-liberalism and reactionary ideologies.

 

All these tasks must be implemented in a time-bound manner beginning from the Party C.C. Centre. State Committees must also concretise such time-bound implementation plans and review them in a year’s time.

 

CPI(M): Revolutionary Party of the Indian People

 

The materialization of such a vision of the CPI(M), however, requires that we strengthen our organisational capacities enormously. As a revolutionary Party we inherit the rich legacy of the Party’s struggles for India’s freedom and for a pro-people socialist alternative. We also inherit the legacy of successfully triumphing through struggles against all ideological and organisational deviations in the international and domestic revolutionary movements.

 

Adhering to the revolutionary content of Marxism-Leninism, combating all anti-Marxist ideologies; Left sectarianism and right revisionism within the Communist movement, the CPI(M) has emerged as the strongest Communist force in India on the strength of the people’s struggles that it spearheads. This has been achieved on the basis of the immense sacrifices and martyrdom of thousands of our comrades.

 

No social transformation is possible, in fact, cannot be conceived without the vast mass of people belonging to all exploited classes rising in revolt against the exploiting ruling classes. In the final analysis it is the people who make history. Revolutionary history is no exception. A revolutionary Party, the CPI(M), must emerge as the vanguard of this people’s upsurge. This is our historic responsibility.

 

Let us redouble our resolve, at this Plenum, to advance towards discharging this responsibility!

 

Forward towards a stronger CPI(M) with an all India mass base!

 

Forward towards a revolutionary Party with a Mass Line!