The Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) Red Star was formed in 2009 merging with various factions of CPI (ML), following the Bhopal Special Conference in 2009 with Com K N Ramachandran as the General Secretary, who has been reelected to the post in the 9th, 10th and 11th Congresses of the Party. In the 12th Party Congress, held in September 2022, following the stepping down of Com K N Ramachandran, Com P J James was elected as new General Secretary.
History
Following the first split in CPI and emergence of CPI (M) in 1964, the inner party struggle continued leading to the Naxalbari Uprising in 1967 and formation of CPI (ML) in 1969 followed by the 1970 Congress (8th Congress). But on account of the domination of left adventurism together with state repression, by 1972 the CPI (ML) disintegrated in to a number of groups. The outcome was the division of the Communist movement in India into a wide spectrum of organizations ranging from right opportunists at one extreme to anarchists at the other extreme. In spite of many valiant struggles and sacrifices, on account of these right and left deviations, the Communist movement in India could not advance along the path of completing the People’s Democratic Revolution. The Indian situation in 1974-75 was extremely favourable for a revolutionary advance as all contradictions within the country as well as at international level were sharpening. But Communist revolutionaries were not ideologically and politically equipped to appropriately intervene. The main failure was the inability to have an objective evaluation of the national and international situation and applying the theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism according to the concrete Indian conditions.
Central Reorganization Committee (CRC)
It was in the background of this critical situation that, immediately after Emergency, the Central Reorganization Committee (CRC) was formed in 1979 to reorganize the movement ideologically, politically and organizationally based on Bolshevik lines, struggling against both right opportunism and left adventurism. By that time, China had also embraced capitalist path in the guise of “socialism with Chinese characteristics” giving rise to grave ideological questions at international level too. The CRC took up these questions having theoretical and political dimensions without which it was difficult for the Communist movement to make further advances along the revolutionary path. In 1979 a Joint Statement was already issued by CRC- CPI (ML) and six other revolutionary organizations at international level who were upholding Marxism- Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought (MLMT). Among other things, this statement denounced the usurpation of power by the ‘capitalist roaders’ in China, their Theory of Three Worlds with its evaluation of Soviet social imperialism as more dangerous than US imperialism which has been the supreme arbiter the postwar imperialist camp.
First All India Conference of 1982
In continuation of the initiatives based on the Joint Statement, the First All India Conference was held in 1982 attended by delegates from parties who were signatories to the Statement. The Conference rejected the hypothesis upheld by both right opportunists (Khrushchovites in Soviet Union) and left adventurists (Lin Biaoists in China) that colonialism disappeared or weakened after the Second World War. On the other hand, it reiterated General Line positions of the 1960s according to which instead of disappearing, colonialism unabatedly continued as neocolonialism in the postwar period in a ‘more pernicious and sinister form’ led by US imperialism. Based on this, the Conference resolved to make a concrete study of this neo-colonial transformation with respect to India especially regarding the vast agrarian changes that have occurred due to imperialist-sponsored Green Revolution and carry forward reorganisation of CPI (ML). Issues such as the transformation of feudal relations in to capitalist on account of superimposed land reforms, postwar development of neocolonial relations under the dependent regime, etc. were taken up for serious study.
Reorganisation through CPI (ML) Red Flag
By the time a preliminary study was completed, a sectarian political position developed within the Organisation that argued for an adventurist path like that of the Khalistan movement advocating secession of different nationalities for resolving the contradictions arising from intensifying neocolonisation. It also put forward the tactical approach of allying with ‘minority communalism’ against ‘majoritarian fundamentalism’. At the international level, the protagonists of this position upheld the sectarian line of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM) whose analysis of the international contradictions was at variance with that of Marxism-Leninism. Corresponding differences were there regarding building-up of Party too. When the ideological-political struggle developed further, this erroneous line had to be defeated by reorganising CRC-CPI (ML) as CPI (ML) Red Flag in 1987. Those who pursued adventurist path dissolved their organisation in 1989 after openly degenerating to bourgeois positions, while another section became part of Maoists.
The period following the formation of Red Flag saw expansion of the organisation along with theoretical developments on the basic questions raised since the 1982 all India Conference. The International Document adopted at the Fourth All India Conference in 1997 reflected the ideological clarity in this direction achieved by the Party during this time. Together with this, the 1999 Plenum decision to participate in elections as part of developing class struggle and the fielding of candidates in the 1999 General Election were significant steps. During this period, in spite of ideological differences, CPI (ML) Red Flag also took the initiative for issue-based platforms and campaigns with other organisations such as CPI (ML) New Democracy, CPI (ML) Liberation, CPI (ML) New Initiative, COI (ML), and MCPI that continued till 2003. Meanwhile, the COI (ML) and CPI (ML) Unity Initiative united to form CPI (ML) with which CPI (ML) Red Flag also merged in 2005 as decided by its Sixth All India Conference held in 2003.
Consolidation as CPI (ML) Red Star
The merger between CPI (ML) Red Flag and CPI (ML) was based on a Unity Resolution that recognised ideological differences between the two regarding the evaluation of the character of Indian state and society as well as on the path of revolution. While the former upheld India as a country under neocolonisation and the path of revolution as capture of power through countrywide insurrection led by the working class uniting with all oppressed, the latter conceptualised India as semi-colonial, semi-feudal and path as that of protracted people’s war line. According to the Resolution, both had to move to full-fledged unity within two years, by resolving these differences through concrete studies and pursuing democratic organisational practice. However, such an approach could not be pursued on account of the sectarian line pursued by of a section within leading to the obstruction of the development of ideological-political line. This prompted the erstwhile Red Flag section to walk out of this ‘united’ organisation in January 2009 and convene the All India Special Conference in November 2009, at Bhopal. The Conference adopted four documents, viz., International Situation and Our Tasks, On Character of Indian State, On Principal Contradiction and Path of Revolution, which on the basis of international and national developments in essence characterised Indian state as neo-colonial and put forward the path of People’s Democratic Revolution in India.
The Bhopal Conference and adoption of important documents in conformity with the international and Indian situation, provided the basic orientation for further development in ideological, political, and organisational line as reflected in the merger with CCR (ML) from Bengal. With the 9th Congress of the Party in 2011, the long drawn-out reorganisation process from CRC-CPI (ML) to CPI (ML) Red Star was culminated by the adoption the Party Program along with the Party Constitution by basically altering the Party Program adopted by the Eighth Party Congress of 1970. The Ninth Congress provided encouragement for further development of theory and practice which led to advances in party building, expansion of the class and mass organizations, people’s struggles and movements in all fields. The situation paved the way for unity initiatives with other revolutionary forces as reflected in the successful completion of unity talks with the CPI (ML) Red Flag in Bengal which was formerly part of the CPI (ML) New Democracy.
It was under this favourable condition that the Tenth Congress of the Party was held at Lucknow in 2015. It further developed the Party Program and Party Constitution through a healthy debate. It also adopted the Path of Revolution, developing it in the background of the experience after the Special Conference. It adopted the Political Resolution putting forward the immediate tasks of developing political education, party building and revolutionary practice. The Resolution on Theoretical Offensive adopted by the Congress put forward the task of taking up principal theoretical challenges before the communist movement, with the perspective of providing new ideological-political orientation to achieve communist resurgence during the period of far-tight neoliberal offensive.
International Tasks
Since the time of the CRC-CPI (ML), the Party was taking keen interest in the reorganization of the International Communist Movement (ICM) based on Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought along with like-minded parties. In the Second International Conference in connection with this, a document explaining Party’s approach to neo-colonialism was prepared. In the meanwhile, on account of the anarchist trend based on Lin Biaoism and later Maoism gaining strength in RIM formed 1984, CPI (ML) Red Star had cut off its links with it. Later, though CPI (ML) Red Flag took active interest in associating with the ICMLPO by sending a delegation to its Eighth Congress in 2004, due to ideological-political questions, a gap developed in relation to it too.
Meanwhile, by the time of the 9th Party Congress, the CPI (ML) Red Star along with other Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations became part of the International Coordination of Revolutionary Parties and Organisations (ICOR) and the Party played a major role in its Founding Conference held in October 2010. Since then, the Party together with like-minded organisations upholding the spirit of proletarian internationalism has been engaged in developing the ICOR as a platform of revolutionary forces at international level. This also provided a favourable context for pursuing concrete analysis of the postwar changes at international and country levels. However, since 2015, the MLPD which plays a leading role in ICOR started to put forward its hypothesis on “new imperialism” envisaging the situation where majority of the world people lives in imperialist countries, has led to serious ideological debates in ICOR as reflected in its 2017 Third World Conference. Since then, this debate, having serious ideological-political dimensions with regard to the strategy and tactics of revolution in neocolonially dependent Afro-Asian-Latin American countries, is still going on in ICOR.
Ideological-Political Initiatives
The development of the Party Line since 2009 Special Conference and formation of CPI (ML) Red Star in 2011 has enabled the party to take up many questions of strategic importance for debate and resolution. This is to be viewed in the context of Party’s resolve to have a concrete analysis of the ever-mounting neoliberal-corporate offensive unleashed by imperialism in the post-Cold War period and the emergence of neofascism since dawn of the 21st century on the one hand, and the ascendancy of the neofascist regime in India led by RSS with its ideological base in Manusmriti based on which caste system, the most inhuman system flourishes here, on the other.
Contradiction between Capital and Nature
Capitalism being a system based on greed and profit, plunder of nature and ecological destruction have been inseparable from the accumulation process from the very beginning. After its transformation in to imperialism, along with super-exploitation of labour, by intensifying the plunder of nature, finance capital has imposed greater pressure on the ecology of earth. In the neo-colonial period, especially after the imperialist crisis of the 1970s, mad rush for exploitation of nature and ecological catastrophe have become a concomitant of mainstream development paradigm making ecology as one of the central political questions in international and national levels. It was considering the critical importance of this pertinent question that the 9th Congress of the Party adopted the contradiction between capital and nature as the fifth major contradiction at national and international levels along with the other four major contradictions in the party Program.PI (ML) Red Star’s firm position is that ecological issues are inseparable from corporate accumulation and plunder of nature by capital. Hence the struggle for an environmentally sustainable, pro-people development paradigm is inseparably linked with class struggle. Taking the gravity of the ecological question in the proper perspective that it is one of the basis questions to be resolved as part of class struggle, in the 9th Congress itself, the Party had incorporated the contradiction between capital and nature as the fifth major contradiction both at the international and national level.
Inseparable Link among Class, Caste and Gender Struggles
The mechanical approach to caste system which still continues as the most inhuman and distinctive feature of Indian society has been the general trend in the Indian communist movement, according to which, capture of political power through revolution shall weaken and eventually eliminate the caste. Ideological-political failure to grasp the concrete essence of class in relation to caste and building up both class struggle and struggle for caste annihilation as part of an integral whole, needs to be self-critically realised as a fundamental weakness of the Communist movement in India. It is this understanding that prompted the Party to take initiative for launching the Caste Annihilation Movement (CAM) in 2011 by joining hands with a broad spectrum of like-minded forces. Many forces fighting against Brahmanical, Manuvadi-Hindutva, the ideological basis of neo-fascism in India are attracted to CAM.
In the same vein, the updated Party Program as adopted by the 12th Congress upheld gender struggle also as inseparable aspect of class struggle. Just as class struggle is directed against the exploiter class, and the struggle for annihilation of caste system is manifested in the form of struggle against the oppressor caste, gender struggle aims at elimination of all forms of gender inequality which is inevitable for democratisation of Indian society where patriarchy based on Manusmriti treats women as subhuman. Upholding women’s equality in all realms, the Party struggles for all opportunities for women to engage in socially productive labor with women-specific and gender-friendly working conditions. In the place of the patriarchal, religious-caste-based family system, the People’s Democratic State for which the Party stands shall ensure conjugal life of partners irrespective of gender, based on mutual love, respect and consent.
Similarly, in view of the exploitation, oppression and marginalization suffered by people of different genders and sexualities such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, etc. (LGBTQIA+), the Party demands appropriate measures for the protection of the entire spectrum of people that come under the broad category of LGBTQIA+.These tasks are incorporated in to the Party’s Program of People’s Democracy perfectly in conformity with its ideological political line that both caste struggle and gender struggle are integral part of class struggle in India.
Resolution on Theoretical Offensive
Tenth Congress of CPI (ML) Red Star held at Lucknow in 2015, among other things, has adopted the Resolution on Theoretical Offensive on the basis of an evaluation of the severe setbacks suffered by the communist movement in spite of the advances made following the October Revolution. It calls for a self-criticism of the past and willingness to try its rectification for a communist resurgence. This effort covers many realms such as a thorough evaluation of the causes behind the collapse of erstwhile socialist countries, especially Soviet Union and China, counter the anti-communist propaganda and establish the ideological superiority of Marxism-Leninism and developing it pursuing the method of ‘concrete analysis of the concrete situation’, and so on. The adoption of this Resolution in the Tenth Party Congress also coincided with the development of Party’s understanding on Neocolonialism too.
Study on Neocolonialism
The study Imperialism in the Neocolonial Phase was an outcome of this theoretical understanding within the Party. Though the Communist Party of China (CPC) in its polemics with the Khrushchevites had pinpointed the qualitative essence of the transformation from colonialism to postwar neocolonialism which is more “pernicious and sinister”, it did not took any further initiative for a concrete study on this crucial issue due to the emergence of the left adventurist Lin Biaoist trend within the CPC that theorised on the imminent collapse of imperialism. According to CPI (ML) Red Star, one of the reasons for the global setbacks suffered by the ICM has been its failure to concretely grasp the laws of motion of postwar neocolonial phase of finance capital from a Leninist perspective. It is in this context that the understanding of Neocolonialism as the hegemony of finance capital led by a handful imperialist states and monopolies therefrom in alliance with the junior partners in neocolonial countries becomes utmost importance in formulating the Party’s political-ideological line.
On RSS Neo-fascism and the Anti-Fascist Struggle
While the long-term strategic task of CPI (ML) Red Star is to establish a People’s Democratic State overcoming imperialism and its junior Indian partners, today the immediate task before the people of India is to defeat RSS neo-fascism with its roots in Brahmanical caste system, the most inhuman social system in history. Based on a comprehensive evaluation of RSS neofascism, the Political Resolution adopted by the 12th Party Congress has put forward the urgent necessity of building up of the broadest possible anti-fascist united front against RSS/BJP regime joining with all like-minded forces including even non-fascist ruling class parties and organisations. While acknowledging the immediate task of such a tactical alliance it should not in any way lead to a surrender of the strategic task of struggling for the class interests of the working class and all oppressed. This is possible only if the Party upholds its independent ideological line while being part of the broadest anti-fascist front. Hence building up party together with class/mass organisations, a Left core of all fraternal and revolutionary parties based on a common minimum program against neoliberal corporatisation in all its manifestations should also be the task of the anti-fascist struggle.
Conclusion
The core issues linked with Party’s ideological-political-organizational line elucidated above covering especially the period from the 9th Congress to the 12th Congress are the outcome of the clarity reached by pursuing the Marxist-Leninist method of concrete analysis of both the national and international situation. To be precise, along with the above-mentioned positions, in a multi-national, multi-lingual, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious country like India, the most populous country in the world today, instead of superimposed unitary policies, CPI (ML) red Star’s firm stand is distinguished by the need for a Democratic State based on Federal Principles upholding the linguistic, ethnic, economic and cultural rights of all nationalities that constitute India.
