[lbo-talk] Fwd: CPI(ML)-Liberation general secretary Dipankar speaks on the 2009 elections

[ravi]

>
>   India's 2009 general election: Lessons for the left
>
>  Full: <http://links.org.au/node/1065>
>
>  By *Dipankar Bhattacharya*,
>
>  general secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)  
> Liberation
>
>
> [...] It is interesting that in its steady right-wing drift, the noise
> emanating from dominant quarters of West Bengal CPI (M) against the
> ``dogmatism’’ and "adventurism’" of the party’s central leadership
> seeks to attribute the CPI (M)’s electoral rout to its belated act of
> withdrawal of support to the Congress. This is nothing but an exercise
> in barking up the wrong tree. If the CPI (M) had not withdrawn
> support, the Congress would have anyway subjugated the left in
> national politics, while the Trinamool Congress (TMC) would have still
> monopolised the public anger in West Bengal. Not ``dogmatism’’ or
> ``adventurism’’, the greatest internal enemy of the left at this
> juncture is opportunism and the intoxication of power.
>
> The CPI (M) and the Communist Party of India (CPI, the older and more
> traditional communist party) clearly have a lesson to learn from the
> electoral outcomes. The lesson is certainly not to seek signs of
> anti-imperialism or pro-people concern or commitment in the emerging
> leadership of the Congress. If the Congress has retrained its focus on
> its own revival, any force claiming to be left must also rebuild and
> reposition itself as the core of the people’s movement for livelihood,
> survival, justice and democracy and for the nation’s quest for a
> dignified future beyond the strategic umbrella of the US.
>
> The entire ruling class and its array of appendages from the
> liquor-barons like Vijay Mallya to corporate media mandarins have
> jumped to use this opportunity to discredit the entire left and the
> pro-people agenda of Indian politics. Resolutely challenging such
> attacks, any meaningful introspection must be aimed at identifying and
> eradicating the real malady and rejuvenating the left movement in
> closer integration with the people and their real needs and
> aspirations. A renewal and assertion of the communist identity as the
> most sincere, vibrant and fighting platform of people’s politics is
> the need of the hour.
>
> It is true that CPI (ML), in spite of its unrelenting struggle and
> mobilisation, and its improved performance in Jharkhand, could not
> show an encouraging electoral outcome in Bihar. But this cannot be any
> source of demoralisation or despondency that may be sought to be
> drummed up across different sections of progressive forces in the
> country. The new challenge indeed calls for still greater struggles
> and more vigorous mobilisation.
>
> By rejecting the communal BJP-NDA and rebuffing the cobweb of
> opportunist alliances and narrow identity politics, the 2009 verdict
> has opened up new possibilities for the entire left and democratic
> camp to assert as a fighting opposition in the national political
> arena. Revolutionary communists must take adequate note of the
> prospects and challenges unleashed by the verdict and rise
> wholeheartedly to the occasion.
>
> [This article is the editorial of the June 2009 issue of the Communist
> Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation’s monthly magazine,
> Liberation.]

	--ravi