The Left needs new thinking

Sujeet Dasgupta

09 Jun 2024, 5:00 am

Whenever you enter a Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) office, you can’t help but look at the huge photographs on the wall. They were all foreigners who had disappeared many years ago, and there might be pictures of one or two Indians beside them.

If you don’t get time to visit CPM offices, look at the posts they have posted since May 19 this year on social media. You can see the records praising the revolutionary Ho Chi Minh. The post coincided with his birthday. Vietnamese Communist leader denounces U.S. atrocities

This is the problem with the Indian Left. Refusing to adapt their politics to the changing times, they have no contemporary political problems or homegrown revolutionaries. There is no better time to fight for the rights of the poor, for the unemployed youth and workers, for the innocent who were disenfranchised, for religious and linguistic minorities in India and globally.

The leftist movement on a global scale is spewing fire for the problems of the people. Students are always progressive; So they are naturally leftists. It’s as if the 1960s are back. All you need are revolutionaries like Tariq Ali.

There are a lot of struggles going on. Leftists around the world are protesting against the Israeli army’s offensive against Palestinians in Gaza, the struggle in countries like the United States for the lives of blacks, the agitation to ensure the rights of queer queers, the awareness to reduce the carbon emissions that are responsible for climate change, and the exploitation of permanent work, fixed hours of labor and the kick system of exploitation without any fair pay.

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There is no denying that the Indian Left fought for larger and wider issues. The peasants supported the agitation. Citizenship Amendment – No National Register of Citizens. They marched for workers’ employment and minimum wage rights. They protested against privatisation of state enterprises.

Someone has to fight boldly in support of those who cannot defend themselves. But in all these struggles, we continue to hear only the slogans of the 1980s, 1990s and even the 1970s! (At a public meeting in the South Calcutta Lok Sabha constituency, a leader said, ‘Lal… Lal… The college girls gathered there were amazed when he swallowed ‘Lal Salaam’).

Continued routine speeches: workers’ rights should be protected, human rights should be respected, farmers’ interests should be protected; No communalism, we will not allow fascism, we will fight corruption.

All right, all right, all right. Yes, and wearing a shirt with Che Guevara on it.

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Social Media

Even more vibrantly, issues are being explored on social media. Declining employment opportunities in manufacturing industries, new problems faced by the agricultural sector, poor quality in education, especially in primary schools, squeezing workers in non-precarious part-time work and paying low wages, the poisoning of the air in cities so much that ordinary people cannot breathe, the problems faced by the government even when it talks of supporting start-ups They are spoken. These can be heard while interacting with young people online.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

There is a huge debate on AI and its impact on the world level. What has the Indian Left done about it? Will ChatGPT compete with creative work?

There is much talk about the ‘Green New Project Framework’ to provide high-paying new jobs in the environmental sector to provide socio-economic justice. What is the Left’s view on this?

Leadership lacks the thought to properly guide these conversations. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) is only interested in political rallies and rallies, and the old slogans that are accustomed to hearing its slogans continue to abuse the right wing in between. Now there is a new affection for the Congress party.

Where are Bernie Sanders, Greta Thunberg, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Channa Marins for India? Where is the leadership, who is identifying and advancing the issues, and where are the demands for contemporary issues?

The question that comrades ask themselves in private meetings is – why has there not emerged a leader among the Left in the last fifty years like Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi? Why should Rahul Gandhi not be the next general secretary of the CPI(M)? Whatever the party is saying now, he is also saying on the platform!

I am not a political expert. These are the views of someone who grew up under leftist rule.

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Growth in Kolkata

It was in Kolkata, the capital of Bengal, that I grew up as a boy in the 1980s and 1990s. Football, cycling and walking around the city are daily duties. I regularly attend all the public meetings of the Students Federation of India (SFI).

In those days, leftists were respected in society. Let us read the works of Georgi Lucas, Althusser and Gramsci. Let’s look at the movies of Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Kadak. Let us go to tiring seminars, debates and discussions on socio-economic issues. We will go to Shahid Minar in Kolkata to condemn the policies of the World Bank.

We would proudly call ourselves Marxists and wear red badges or party flags on our khadi kurtas. It means, “We are knowledgeable, we care to make the world more livable, and we will act when necessary!”

It was all vague pretense, but we had some faith in them.

The government of Comrade Jyoti Basu, steeped in the poetry of T.S. Eliot, had done land reforms very well. It also gave adequate powers to local governments. These were performed for the first time in independent India.

In spite of the anti-government attitude of the then ruling Union (Congress), many departments including agriculture in Bengal were well managed. (Many states, including Bengal, were badly hit by the Centre’s foolish decision to impose the total cost of transporting coal-minerals and wheat-paddy equally on all the states of the country). Literacy and sanitary facilities increased. But during the day, there was a power outage throughout the day.

Due to the ‘pro-worker’ (strike encouragement) policy adopted by the Left Front government in Bengal without any farsightedness, industrial growth in the state fell by half and the government’s fiscal deficit doubled. After some time, no industrialist was afraid to start business in Bengal.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who hates Marxists, says that 58,000 mills, big and small, were closed during the Left rule. Dunlop, Shawallas, Duckback, Metal Box, Eastern Paper Mill, Sulekha, Usha, jute mills and many others have stopped production. Even if we assume that Mamata’s data was exaggerated, and half of it was shut down, the economic loss to the state is immeasurable.

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The Great Exodus

The 1980s were a time of great disaster as far as new employment opportunities for the middle class were concerned. After graduating from college, I longed for a job as a writer in the local corporation.

Even though I had studied global studies, that was the height I wanted to go as far as work was concerned. Being an average in studies, I could not compete for the high position of the ‘bhadralok asamis’ (elite) of Bengal. With a B.A. degree (I dropped out of my post-graduation) I worked as a salesman and travelled all over Bengal. Fortunately, that life did not last.

The educated middle class migrated to Mumbai, Delhi and other metropolises in search of work. The poor boarded unreserved second class compartments and started going to Maharashtra, Gujarat and southern states. Most of them have not received any vocational training or vocational education.

In his book Exploring Marxist Bengal c.1971-2011: Memory, History and Irony, Devaraj Bhattacharya notes: “The CPI(M) has not been able to offer the educated middle class any alternative to economic growth and employment. So, the educated middle class Bengalis in computer science and related to it moved to other states, which became a supplier of manpower to other states.”

Things improved slightly in the 1990s. The liberalisation policy introduced by Finance Minister Manmohan Singh helped. The Haldia petro-chemical factory was partially invested by industrialist Purnendu Chatterjee. The Durgapur smelter area plants also expanded. The foundation stone for IT industries in the Salt Lake sector was laid in the early 2000s and later became the IT hub of the state.

Because of its influence over a number of companies, big and small, the Left won successive elections. Progressive programmes and social welfare programmes related to education and health helped them succeed. The Trinamool Congress follows them. The CPI(M) certainly had a local branch in all places and everywhere.

In the late 1990s, Comrade Jyoti Basu decided that enough was enough and thousands of older comrades heaved a sigh of relief. Anil Biswas, Biman Bose and Buddhadeb Bhattacharya took over as the leadership of the West Bengal CPI(M). Anil Biswas was the Chanakya of Marxists. Biman Bose wanted to quit politics and become a sanyasi. Buddha Dev is a big thinker but less to act. His decision to give space to Tata to manufacture Nano in Singur made other comrades nervous.

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Transformation of Buddha Dev

Buddhadeb took the decision to allow industrialisation to resume in Bengal. He also wanted IT companies to come to Bengal. The death of Anil Biswas at this time has become a great tragedy. Buddhadeb has failed to suppress the Mamata-led protests.

JNU-educated elitist thinkers Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury are said to have opposed Buddhadeb’s decisions to industrialise Bengal, and are now leading the CPI(M).

Many in the party say that Prakash Karat is responsible for the decline of the CPI(M). They read out a long list of complaints against Karat. It was he who made the decision to withdraw outside support to the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government for the decision to procure raw material for the reactor. He encouraged the formation of factions within the party due to differences with Sitaram Yechury over electoral alliance. Karat has been accused of expelling young leader Ritavrata Mukherjee from the party for showing his expensive Apple Watch in the Rajya Sabha.

Despite being in politics for a long time, Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury have never contested an election; They will no longer compete.

Party insiders say Karat, who was the party’s general secretary from 2005 to 2015, has made it impossible for the party to move forward due to his rigid ideological stance. But I would say that Karat’s decision in Singur was correct. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee learned a bitter lesson and brought down the party from power by daring to step on a place where even the angels were afraid to set foot. Mamata adopted the same tactics as Marxists in protests, many of the Marxist workers themselves left the party and joined Mamata’s party.

New faces, old positions

The party fielded several newcomers in Bengal to face the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. On the surface, this is a good thing; But to no avail.

I eagerly followed interviews with young candidates. They want to get rid of the past. But if you look deeper, you will find that they continue to chant the same chants that they did in the canteen during their college days. As in the 1980s, they are still in a fighting mood.

Fighting is one aspect. At the same time, it is necessary to show alternatives to those for whom we are fighting; If Narendra Damodar Das asks Modi how it is, he will tell you.

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Five Point Plans

Let me put forward five ideas as far as I know how to help the Left come back to power:

First, update the framework for the party. There is nothing wrong with Marxism. The party’s policies and programmes should be in line with the expectations of the present society. You can feel compassion for the poor – with an Apple watch on your hand; Someone needs to tell Karat this. Which party does not speak of equality (socialism)? Congress, BSP, AAP – why is the BJP speaking in favour of the poor? Socialism is a common name and the Marxist leadership should think how to say it in a way that is acceptable to the people.
Don’t see red in everything: Leftists, like the right, blow up any small event. Talk to people to present their problems. Thousands of low-income people in Delhi travel on bicycles. What is wrong if the Left agitates for them to buy non-petrol and diesel electric bicycles at a lower price – at the city level, at the state level, at the national level? Why not fight to make roads better and safer for traffic, reduce accidents
The party should be made popular among the grassroots. For this, it is better to forget about electoral politics for a while. There was a time when AAP was very influential among auto drivers in Delhi. They fought for their problems. The Left parties should emerge as a big movement among the grassroots.
Farewell to Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury; Let them be the Margadarsis of the party and give suggestions. Let the party administration be run by energetic and innovative comrades. Don’t trust the youth and hand over the party to them alone. If you buy this product, it should not only be sold because it is free, but it should also be useful to the consumer. Young guys have a lot to learn, college canteen conversations alone are not enough.
The elitist mentality and influence must disappear. The party is suffocated by the influence of the elite, the highly educated and the forward castes. The party has a large number of Mukherjees, Banerjees, Karatuls and Yechurys. Where are the Sahas, Mandals, Jatavs and Malhars? Where are the women on board committees? (Don’t cite Brinda Kaaram as an example). While the Marxists were sipping honeyed lemon tea, the BJP went around several rounds inducting a large number of women into the party.
Handle digital: The CPI(M) is not without a deal with the internet. But there is self-pride, self-praise, songs and dialogues with Bollywood tunes. People don’t have new ideas to say, no new style. If you have a drought of imagination, at least watch the BJP’s media campaign and learn. The revival of the CPI(M) lies in its adoption of technology, strategies and concepts in tune with modern times. The tradition of working for the marginalised and the working class must continue, and the party should get a lot of new generation of supporters!

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