Eighth plenum of the Central Committee of CGPI

The Eighth Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Ghadar Party of India was convened in the month of August 2006. It positively assessed the progress achieved, and critically evaluated the weaknesses, in implementing the Plan of Action adopted at the Third Congress in January 2005.

Over the past 18 months since the Third Congress, members of the party have worked actively in the midst of the workers, peasants and other working people, providing leadership to their struggles. We have been in the forefront in defending the people’s rights, in agitating for an immediate end to the anti-social program of privatization and liberalization, and in opposing the growing imperialist alliance between India and the US. This has deepened the roots of the party among the toiling masses in several areas and brought fresh young recruits into its ranks. It has raised further the prestige of the party as an enlightened and unifying force.

The plenum noted that a conscious and continuous struggle has been waged by party organisations in all regions to strictly adhere to the Party Constitution adopted at the Third Congress, and that this has strengthened the party and its work in this period. The key to the successes achieved lies in our militant effort to strengthen collective decision making at all levels. It lies in our constant effort to ensure that agreed upon decisions and individual responsibilities are carried out.

The plenum severely criticized all forms of violation of party norms in the name of expediency or seeking a ‘short cut’. It called upon all regional and area committees to pay utmost attention to the ongoing work of establishing and nurturing party basic organisations amongst workers, peasants, women and youth. It called on all party organisations to regularly check up on the implementation of the Plan of Acton.

The plenum noted the advances made in this period in strengthening the Party Press, including its role in exposing the bourgeoisie and its tactics, elaborating the vision and program of the working class, and in waging ideological struggle against the bourgeoisie and its conciliators within the communist movement. It suggested measures to further strengthen the Party Press; in particular, it called for expansion in the number of writers and disseminators from the different regions.

The plenum positively assessed the efforts of the entire Party to build and strengthen the mass organisations of workers, peasants, women and youth in the face of all kinds of pressures and difficulties. It noted the successful efforts of the youth to strengthen their organisation, including their latest initiative to conduct study sessions on communism. It noted the important advances made in politically uniting peasants and building membership- based organisations among them. It also noted the steps being taken to strengthen and energise the work of organising women to fight for their rights.

The plenum took important decisions to advance the work of forging political unity in the working class. It emphasized the need to step up our activity among the most organized detachments of workers, given their mood of rebellion against the bourgeois offensive and anger against the class conciliators in the leadership of the trade unions.

The plenum applauded the successful efforts of the youth in developing street theatre in the midst of the struggle of slum dwellers against the demolition of their homes. It reiterated that revolutionary culture — in varied forms such as drama, street theater and films — is an important component of the overall plan. It emphasized that revolutionary politics is the highest form of culture, and must be kept at the centre of all work on the front of culture.

The plenum reiterated the call of the Third Congress that every basic organisation must work for the intensification of the revolutionary class struggle, through the building and strengthening of mass organisations and sangharsh samitis among the people. It reiterated that the Plan of Action of the Party is to build and strengthen the mechanism through which the working people can become and remain the rulers of society.

The plenum discussed the important advances made by the revolutionary forces in Nepal, and the difficulties they face at the present time. It reiterated the support of our party for the principle that it is the right of the people of Nepal, and of them alone, to decide the future shape of politica l power in their country. At the same time, the plenum also reiterated that our party considers it to be its important internationalist duty to actively seek to assist the revolutionary forces of Nepal in any way we can.

The plenum assessed the importance of elaborating the proletarian vision and project of nation building in the present context, when imperialism is exerting maximum pressure to impose multi-party representative democracy and so-called free market economy on all countries, and more and more peoples are seeking the path to their own empowerment. In this context, the plenum decided to engage the entire party and the communist movement in discussion on this issue through a series of conferences in different regions of the country towards the end of 2006.

In view of the rapidly expanding scope and pace of work of the party, the growing demand within the movement for our intervention and assistance in organising joint actions, and the new initiatives being planned for the rest of 2006, the plenum pointed to the urgent necessity to step up the mobilization of funds from all our members and supporters.