HISTORY OF GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

EAST GERMANY - A Country Study
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Country Listing
East Germany
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Preface
Table A. Chronology of Important Events
COUNTRY PROFILE
COUNTRY
GEOGRAPHY
SOCIETY
ECONOMY
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
NATIONAL SECURITY
Introduction
Chapter 1. Historical Setting
EARLY HISTORY
Ancient Period
Medieval Germany
Merovingian Dynasty, ca. 500-751
Carolingian Empire, 752 - 911
Saxon Dynasty, 919 - 1024
Salian Dynasty, 1024 - 1125
Hohenstaufen Dynasty, 1138 - 1254
Early Habsburg Dynasty
The Reformation and the Thirty Years' War
The End of the Holy Roman Empire and the Rise of Prussia
GERMAN CONFEDERATION
Age of Metternich
Liberal Reform Movement
Bismarck and Unification
IMPERIAL GERMANY
Political Consolidation
Bismarck's Fall
Industrial Expansion
Wilhelmine Era
World War I
WEIMAR REPUBLIC (1918-33)
Weimar Constitution
Problems of Parliamentary Politics
Stresemann Era
Weimar Culture
Hitler and the Rise of National Socialism
THIRD REICH
Consolidation of Power
Mobilization for War
Foreign Policy
World War II
Holocaust
Internal Resistance
GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
Postwar Government
Integration into the Soviet System
Collectivization and Nationalization of Agriculture and Industry
New Economic System
Ulbricht Versus Détente
Honecker and East-West Rapprochement
Two Germanies
Tenth Party Congress
Chapter 2. The Society and Its Environment
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
Boundaries
Topography
POPULATION
Historical Trends
Population Structure and Dynamics
Settlement Patterns
THE GERMAN PEOPLE
Origins, Language, and Culture
The German Question Today: One Nation or Two?
Official Policy
Development of an East German National Identity
Public Attitudes on National Identity
Minority Groups
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
The Working Class
Housing
Health and Welfare
Wages and Prices
The Political Elite
The Creative Intelligentsia
The Technical Intelligentsia
INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANS OF SOCIETY
The Family
Mass Organizations
Workers and the Free German Trade Union Federation
Young People and the Free German Youth
Women and the Democratic Women's League of Germany
The Educational System
Religion and Religious Organizations
DISSENT
Chapter 3. The Economy
RESOURCE BASE
LABOR FORCE
ECONOMIC STRUCTURE AND ITS CONTROL MECHANISMS
ECONOMIC POLICY AND PERFORMANCE
ECONOMIC SECTORS
Mining, Energy, and Industry
Agriculture
Transportation and Communications
BANKING, FINANCE, AND CURRENCY
FOREIGN TRADE
THE CONSUMER IN THE EAST GERMAN ECONOMY
THE FIVE-YEAR PLAN, 1986-90
Chapter 4. Government and Politics
CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK
Constitution of 1949
Constitution of 1968
Amendments of 1974
THE STATE APPARATUS
Council of Ministers
Council of State
Legislature
District and Local Government
Judiciary
THE SOCIALIST UNITY PARTY OF GERMANY
Ideology and Politics
Organization and Structure
Politburo
Secretariat
Central Committee
District and Local Party Levels
Selection and Training Procedures
Party Congresses
Alliance Policy
Christian Democratic Union
Liberal Democratic Party of Germany
Democratic Peasants' Party of Germany
National Democratic Party of Germany
The Party and the Media
Political Stability, Legitimation, and Succession
FOREIGN POLICY
Principles of Foreign Policy
Relations with the Soviet Union
Determinants of Policy Toward the Soviet Union
Joint East German-Soviet Relations with the West
Ideological and Political Collaboration
Relations with West Germany
Policy Toward the Third World
Policy Toward the Industrial West
France
The United States
Chapter 5. National Security
THE SOVIET ZONE OF OCCUPATION
The Soviet Military Administration
Foundation of the People's Police
THE REPUBLIC
Ministry of the Interior and the Soviet Control Commission
Creation of the National Defense Forces under the Ministry of the Interior
Creation of the Ministry of State Security
Uprising
The Establishment of the Ministry of Defense
East Germany Joins the Warsaw Pact
Crisis Control
The National Security System and the Citizen
Civil Defense
Socialist Military Education
Premilitary Training by Mass Organizations
Conscientious Objection to Military Service
The National People's Army and the Third World
ARMED FORCES
Missions and Roles
Ministry of Defense
Ground Forces
People's Navy
Air Force/Air Defense Force
Border Troops
Uniforms, Decorations, and Insignia
Military Traditions and Ceremonies
Conditions of Service
Reserves and Mobilization
The Group of Soviet Forces in Germany
PARAMILITARY FORCES
Agencies of the Ministry of the Interior
Agencies of the Ministry of State Security
The Working-Class Combat Groups
Civil Defense
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Public Order and Mass Participation
The Legal System
The Court System
Penal Institutions
Penal Code
Criminal Behavior here -->
Appendices Appendix A. Tables -->
Appendix B. The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance
Appendix C. The Warsaw Pact
Bibliography
Glossary

PARTY POLICY

Policy Resolution

Policy Resolutions on Tactics
"Marxist tactics consist in combining the different forms of struggle, in the skilful transition from one form to another, in steadily enhancing the consciousness of the masses and extending the area of their collective action, each of which, taken separately, may be aggressive or defensive, and all of which, taken together, lead to a more intense and decisive conflict."
(Lenin, Collected Works, Volume 20, p 210)
This excellent definition by Lenin clearly emphasises the essential components of Marxist tactics in their interconnection and serves as our guideline in formulating effective tactics in pursuit of our revolutionary strategic goal and perspective.
In our context of new or people's democratic revolution, the strategic goal is to establish a revolutionary people's democratic dictatorship by overthrowing the ruling alliance of big bourgeoisie and landlords, an alliance dependent on imperialism. The contradiction between feudalism as represented by powerful multifarious feudal remnants and the broad masses of Indian people is identified as the principal contradiction which operates in conjunction with several other basic, fundamental or major contradictions -- contradiction between imperialism and the Indian nation, contradiction between big capital and the Indian people, the working class in particular, and contradiction among various sections of the ruling classes.
The challenge of developing effective tactics in the light of this strategic perspective entails working out a set of policies and positions regarding various bourgeois institutions and parties as well as various social classes and other identities and forces.
Mass Organisations and Struggles
Mass work or organising the broad masses of the two basic classes, the urban and rural proletariat and the labouring peasantry, and sections like students and youths, women and various compatible social strata is a basic task of the Party. Revolutionary mass organisations serve not merely as conveyor belts supplying communist members from among the masses, they themselves play a crucial role as part and parcel of the revolutionary movement. The strategic goals of some of these organisations may go beyond the minimum goal of new democracy. A revolutionary trade union must, for example, have socialism as its motto; similarly a revolutionary women’s organisation fights for the strategic goal of women's liberation, for the attainment of which new democracy or even socialism provide necessary but not sufficient conditions. The relation between the Party and various mass organisations is accordingly marked by varying degrees of flexibility.
While laying special emphasis on deepening mass work with strong local roots, we also try to organise it on as broad scales as possible. This stands in sharp contrast to the currently proliferating phenomenon of voluntary organisations or NGOS, which are almost as a rule funded either by the government or foreign funding agencies or both and cater to very specific issues and local grievances and problems of the people, thereby serving as effective vehicles of reformism and depoliticisation. Apart from launching our own network of organisations wherever necessary and possible we also follow the policy of developing mutual cooperation and broad-based unity in action with a whole range of mass organisations so as to facilitate the development of broader class solidarity and radicalise ongoing mass struggles. If conditions so demand, for this purpose we are also prepared to carry on fractional work within organisations which are otherwise reformist or even reactionary in nature.
Various Identities and Other Social Forces
Organisations and struggles of various nationalities, backward and oppressed castes and minority religious communities are quite widespread and important in our society. Very often such organisations and struggles present the mixed picture of a reactionary or conservative leadership commanding a powerful mass base and cashing in on popular democratic aspirations. As long as such trends operate in opposition to the ruling classes and do not degenerate into agencies of reaction, we believe in interacting with such trends with a view to intensifying the process of class formation and class struggle within the concerned identities and winning over the masses involved in such organisations and struggles to the revolutionary movement. Under certain specific circumstances, the Party itself initiates and leads such organisations and struggles.
United Front Practice
Building a new democratic or people's democratic front comprising the class forces of new democratic revolution is a key strategic task of the Party. Such a front is to be built under the leadership of the working class around the core of the worker-peasant alliance and it is to pursue the minimum programme of the Party in the stage of democratic revolution leading up to the establishment of a revolutionary people's democratic dictatorship. The development of such a revolutionary front on a comprehensive programmatic basis has necessarily to pass through a whole series of transitional stages. The class forces of such a front do not operate in a vacuum but are found organised under different banners on the basis of different issues or partial programmes. To polarise these scattered forces in favour of a single front of democratic revolution, the Party applies the tactic of building issue-based or programme-oriented united fronts with like-minded forces. To this end, the Party selects and combines a whole range of suitable issues of struggle and forms of organisatiotin. The tactic of united front is particularly relevant in our context of a caste-ridden society where class issues often acquire caste appearances, which in turn tend to distort and impede the development of the underlying class reality. The tactic of united front under such conditions helps in pinning down and isolating the main enemy, defusing unnecessary social tension and bringing the class essence to the fore.
For a Left Confederation
With right reactionary forces rapidly consolidating their position in Indian polity in the wake of growing communal offensive and wholesale adoption of neo-liberal economic policies, so-called centrist forces are increasingly giving way to this Rightwing ascendance. Only a broad-based and popular resurgence of the Left can check this menace and prevent the centrist forces from going over to the Right. This calls for a different model of Left unity as opposed to the opportunist model of Left Front which first got bogged down in running and defending state governments and has of late even compromised its basic identity by appending itself to a motley combination of bourgeois parties. The kind of Left confederation we advocate will, on the contrary, be a fighting combination of various Left forces whose basic task and identity will be to serve as a radical Left core in national politics. Constituents of such a confederation will be free to pursue their independent lines in their own spheres while working together on the national plane on a commonly agreed agenda of action. It is only as an extension of such a fighting core that necessary agreements would be forged with non-Left forces against the Right. Such a Left confederation would greatly facilitate the cause of a Left resurgence against the growing threat of a reactionary Rightwing ascendance and in the process it would also go a long way towards our cherished goal of eventual unification of all revolutionary Indian communists in a single communist party.
Attitude to Bourgeois Parties
Most of the mainstream political formations including parties that are popularly classified as centrist or democratic parties are bourgeois parties in terms of their guiding policies and programmes and the class interests they serve. Over the past few decades Indian politics has witnessed the rise of a whole range of parties. Apart from old type of all-India parties, we now have a number of regional parties or parties professedly espousing the cause of specific castes and communities. While the rise of these parties reflects the inherent contradictions of the so-called Indian process of development, the leaders of these parties have been increasingly accommodated in the ruling elite. This is seen not only in the kind of national consensus that has emerged over vital issues of economic policy but also in the ease with which these parties have been aligning and realigning among themselves. While grasping this basic point of class unity running through the whole gamut of bourgeois parties, a communist party also has to differentiate one shade of bourgeois parties from another. It must, however, be clearly understood that in our society any radicalism in the bourgeoisie has essentially to be a reflection of peasant radicalism.
It is primarily to win over the peasant base of these parties that we follow the tactic of unity and struggle, of developing interaction and even alliances with such bourgeois parties against the main enemy. Crucial to this context is the utilisation of various existing and potential rifts between the bourgeois parties. This may also entail the forging of certain agreements, however temporary and partial, between the Communist Party and its bourgeois rivals. We must remember that the raison d'etre of such a tactic is not to inspire different sections of the bourgeoisie into action but to free the working people from bourgeois influences.
Participation in Elections
Elections at regular intervals to Parliament, State Assemblies and local bodies represent crucial occasions of political struggle in the parliamentary democratic form of government that exists in India. Unless faced with exceptional conditions demanding a boycott of such exercises, the Party stands for an active and vigorous participation in elections. The basic purpose underlying such participation is the organisation of powerful election campaigns with a view to heightening the political assertion of the working people as an independent force and projection of alternative policies in different spheres. Electoral agreements, ranging from mere seat-sharing arrangements to full-fledged electoral blocs that may be arrived at with various Left and democratic forces must subserve this basic purpose. However, we recognise the possibility that it is possible for a revolutionary communist party to win a majority of seats, either singly or in alliance with like-minded forces, in local bodies and in exceptional cases even in a few provincial assemblies. As laid down in our programme, such communist-led district councils or state governments will try and accomplish a set of democratic tasks of the movement and also play the role of a revolutionary opposition against the central authority.
Attitude to Various Governments
In the parliamentary arena, the Party remains firm and consistent in its role of the extreme revolutionary opposition. Our MPs and MLAs are duty bound to oppose every anti-democratic step and anti-people measure of every government regardless of its political composition. However, in conformity with our policy of differentiating not only between enemies and friends but also between bigger and lesser enemies, we do not flinch from offering critical support to governments run by parties other than the principal representatives of the bourgeoisie in the face of a mounting enemy offensive. But offering such conditional and exclusively parliamentary form of support does not in any way restrict or inhibit our extra-parliamentary role and initiatives which remains the primary aspect of our practice.
The Battle of Two Tactics
Maintaining proletarian independence is a principle that is absolutely central to any revolutionary tactical line. This requires revolutionary communists to firmly uphold the banner of proletarian internationalism as opposed to bourgeois nationalism. In our context, it means remaining firm on anti-imperialism, opposing every act of bourgeois betrayal of national dignity and interests vis-a-vis imperialist powers, while simultaneously rallying the proletariat and the broad masses of the people against the ruling classes' attempt to whip up war hysteria or jingoistic frenzy against neighbouring countries or at any rate to derail the people's class consciousness and struggles by resorting to chauvinistic propaganda whether against neighbouring countries or against secessionist insurgencies or statehood or autonomy movements waged by various nationalities within India. To combat the chauvinistic or regional hegemonist line of Indian ruling classes and break with the disastrous legacy of Partition, we uphold the cause of closer regional unity in South Asia and formation of a confederation comprising India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Equally important in this context is our steadfast refusal to sanctify the bourgeois system and its institutions under any circumstances. It is one thing to utilise the given system and combat every imperialist or fascist attempt to disrupt the existing institutions and in this sense we are opposed to the anarchists. Sanctifying and glorifying the bourgeois system and sowing illusions about the possibility to reform it and make it work in favour of the proletariat and the working people at large is quite another proposition and on this score we are firmly against the opportunists. While combining various forms of struggle to carry forward the revolutionary movement we wage a relentless war against both anarchist desperation and opportunist illusions
But this independence must not be mistaken for the line of so-called splendid isolation. Independence has to be safeguarded and asserted in the course of active proletarian intervention in the political process. If tailism is to be rejected outright, so is passivity. Behind this battle of two tactics lie two conflicting visions of democratic revolution. While the revolutionary tactical line is inspired by the drive to assert proletarian leadership over democratic revolution, the opportunist line looks to this or that section of the bourgeoisie for leadership and advocates a policy of collaboration and power-sharing for the proletariat.
Again, this active intervention must not be equated to the so-called game of manipulations bourgeois politicians play and excel in. The challenge is to lend a sharp and principled political edge to the growing strength of the working people and their movement. In other words, developing and transforming proletarian independence into proletarian hegemony is the crux of revolutionary communist tactics
Ensuring a proper balance between tactics and strategy is another crucial challenge. Many of the mistakes we committed in the earlier phase of our movement arose from our failure to extricate essentially tactical questions pertaining to forms of struggle from the framework of strategy. Boycott of elections, almost a near-exclusive emphasis on armed struggle, rejection of trade unions could all be justified as a valid tactical response to the revolutionary crisis of the late 60s, but when these measures were wrongly elevated to the level of strategy for the entire stage of democratic revolution the movement suffered from a whole set of left deviationist mistakes. The opportunist wing of the communist movement has, on the other hand, freed tactics from all strategic concerns. Devoid of the essential strategic thrust and perspective, the pursuit of such "independent" tactics has only led to the practice of unchecked tailism with leaders engaging themselves in the politics of manipulations and manoeuvres and thus serving as active vehicles of bourgeois illusions and influences among the masses.
Our Party has always been actively engaged in carrying forward this battle of two tactics. The experience and evolution of the opportunist tactics has always served as a great negative teacher for us in our endeavour to develop effective revolutionary communist tactics in India.
Policy Resolutions on Nationality Question and Related Issues
India is a land of several nationalities and ethno-lingual groupings. Growing economic and cultural interaction and decades of unity forged in the course of anti colonial freedom movement and anti-imperialist democratic struggle have lent a unified Indian face to the multi national mosaic of our Indian society. But this process of evolution of Indian identity suffers from major bureaucratic and chauvinistic distortions, large-scale economic disparities and cultural economic discriminations. Various nationalities and national minorities in India are locked in a serious contradiction with the over centralised Indian state, which also expresses itself through strong centrifugal tendencies.
Hence, the situation warrants, reconstitution of national unity on the basis of federal, democratic, secular polity recognising the nationalities right to self determination including secession and instilling a sense of belonging, equality and security in all minority groupings, effective democratisation of decision making, devolution of resources and decentralisation of developmental activities to enlist popular participation in nation building.
(From the Party Programme)
Distorted Process of Nation Building
Indian ruling classes utterly failed to appreciate the underlying process of evolving national unity. Their adherence to the British legacy of policy of imposition, the reversal of the policy of Congress from relatively strong provinces to strong centre towards over centralised trend of state structure, hindered the natural growth of unity and fusion. The recommendations of State Reorganisation Commission as appointed by Nehru in 1953 did not care for the question of self-determination and autonomy; rather in the name of unity, national security and economic viability it justified the trend of super-imposed centralisation.
In addition to the serious wounds inflicted by partition, expansionism practiced by Indian ruling classes in relation to neighbouring countries, with chauvinistic overtones, attempted imposition of Hindi as link language and brutal suppression of struggles of different nationalities for self-determination and autonomy contributed further to distorting and complicating the very process of nation building.
Under the pretext of enforcing national unity from above, the Indian state has only been strengthening its reactionary apparatus, enacting draconian laws and legitimising fake encounters and mass killings. It goes without saying that these reactionary instruments of repression are not reserved for nationality movements but are applied liberally against various streams of democratic movements.
The aspirations of various nationalities/ethno-linguistic groups are, of course, not expressed in a uniform way, they assume multifarious forms according to the degree of sense of alienation, feeling of insecurity and inequality etc.
Nationality Question in Indian Conditions
Nationality question in India manifests itself with its own specific Indian characteristics and is distinctly different from those of Russia, where a single "Great" Russian nationality under the Tsarist Empire was oppressing other smaller nationalities, or in pre-revolution China, where nationality question was more or less a non-issue. The trend of secession is essentially a peripheral issue in Indian politics whereas it was a highly potent one in Russia given the specific composition of the multi-national Russian empire. Unlike other countries, multi-national Indian state came into being in a peculiar way, i.e., neither through voluntary agreement between different nationalities, nor through any extreme level of oppression and force. In India, we cannot identify any one single nationality oppressing the others, here we have class-based state oppression by an alliance of big landlords and big bourgeoisie encompassing almost all the nationalities. In this backdrop, we feel it is wrong to think in terms of separate liberation of various nationalities followed by the building of an Indian union based on an agreement. Such a view is nothing but an anarchist distortion of the Marxist-Leninist outlook on nationality question.
Barring the trend of independent Kashmir and Nagaland, that too mainly because of long, historical reasons, all other nationality demands are either for statehood within India or for autonomy. Given the over-centralised, unitary state structure, nationality aspirations are, in some cases, articulated in the form of secession. But more often than not the demand for secession is only meant to exert greater pressure on the Indian state to secure certain concessions and rights for the nationality concerned and the leaders have almost invariably been co-opted into the system. This, however, does not rule out the possibility of any future aggravation of centrifugal tendencies.
In spite of the fact that Indian unity has consolidated itself on the basis of a unified market complemented by a unitary super structure, nation building in India is still an unfinished agenda. Economic disparities grown out of distorted, dependent Indian capitalism and the Indian state policy of perpetuation of the same are stumbling blocks to attain the cherished goal of the real unity of the nation.
In order to advance the cause of national unity on a truly democratic, secular basis we extend support to the movements for statehood and autonomy, considering the merit of every case, as it is directly related to the democratisation of Indian polity. We even demand the constitution of a new state reorganisation commission.
We believe that the unification of India and the nationalities' right to self-determination are two inseparable principles. Because, we believe that the recognition of right to self-determination including secession in some special cases, does really facilitate the goal of achieving a real, voluntary union of the country on an equal and democratic basis. Recognition of this right does not necessarily mean blanket support to all kinds of secessionist tendencies. The question of support will be decided on a case-by-case basis taking into account the overall interest of development of the democratic movement. Such tendencies might also have to be opposed in the event of the forces and demands playing into the hands of imperialist and reactionary forces.
We even envisage a confederation of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to undo the partition of our great country. We, from the standpoint of proletarian internationalism, strongly oppose the Bismarckian way of nation-building from above and Indian expansionism with chauvinistic overtones.
On Federalism
We recognise, in principle, the nationalities' right to self-determination including secession because, "the closer a democratic system is to complete freedom to secede the less frequent and less ardent will the desire for separation be in practice."
For communists, splitting a country, division of a nation or ideal of federalism and small nation states is not desirable, rather united and centralised state is one of the important conditions for advancing towards socialism - a transitional stage between medieval division and unification on the basis of communism - but the only question is how to achieve it in a democratic way. To quote Lenin, "The great centralised state is a great historical step forward from medieval disunity to the future socialist unity of the whole world, and only via such a state (inseparably connected with capitalism), can there be any road to socialism. It would, however, be inexcusable to forget that in advocating centralism we advocate exclusively democratic centralism."
For communists, federalism cannot be a principle in itself as building up of a people's democratic state and its transition to a socialist society presupposes centralised planning as one of its important components. Autonomy to every region having appreciably distinct economic and social features, populations of specific national composition etc., is, on the other hand, an essential component for the democratisation of polity and society for it encourages popular participation in nation-building. As Lenin said, "... As far as autonomy is concerned, Marxists defend not the right to autonomy, but autonomy itself, as a general, universal principle of a democratic state with a mixed national composition, and a great variety of geographical and other conditions." Federalism in general is against any kind of centralised planning and is essentially a sophisticated version of narrow regionalism in Indian situation whereas autonomy is an integral and indispensable component of a democratic centralism.
To quote Lenin again, "Recognition of self-determination is not synonymous with recognition of federation as a principle. One may be a determined opponent of that principle and a champion of democratic centralism but still prefer federation to national inequality as the only way to full democratic centralism." Based on this basic position only, in spite of our preference for a centralised state, we feel that in a vast and diverse country like India we just cannot rule out a federal restructuring of the polity and more power to the states etc. altogether and we support such demands also from the angle of sharpening the contradictions and to advance the cause of democratic movement in an overall sense. But, such a federal restructuring should necessarily be based on a greater role for centralisation with particular regard to national planning, equitable distribution of national wealth etc., as against the demand of regional power groups to have a weak centre with a limited power, i.e., empowered only with very few departments as well against the perception of oppressive or undemocratic overcentralisation advocates by the national ruling classes.
At the same time, we cannot support the demand for more power to the states in such cases that leads to the situation of a state's doors being opened up to the direct entry of MNCs, at the cost of centralised control or where it fuels certain varieties of strident regionalism, with religious fundamentalist overtones, articulated, for instance, by forces like Shiv Sena and Akalis which are basically representatives of the elites of advanced regions. In the backdrop of the stronger influence of feudal forces at regional level state power, the demand for federalism and more power to the states, basically a euphemism for regionalism, at times acquires a reactionary character too, deserving opposition by the communists. In these circumstances, we stand for a "strong state and a strong centre" in contrast to the slogan of "strong states and a weak centre". Moreover, we feel that the demands for exclusive rights over a state's resources are also unjustified because such demands negate the very unity of the country and only fuel secessionism.
Under the impact of imperialist globalisation regional disparities have further widened and contradictions have become sharper. Also, it weakens the basis of unity which was forged in the course of anti-imperialist democratic struggles. In the backdrop of market forces being unleashed due to globalization drive, World Bank is advocating newer role of the state through deconcentration of administration, decentralisation of power and devolution of finance and resources to a defined limit. It is only aimed at encouraging larger private participation. All these tall talks of decentralisation etc., are nothing but a ploy to preserve the same unitary system of governance through macro-level controls. This is the essence of cooperative federalism which is also the inspiration for state Chief Ministers to enter into direct agreements with MNCs. It has nothing to do with any genuine democratisation.
On Contending Views
Social democracy falls to appreciate the national question as a live political issue, even refuses to appreciate it as a part of the broader democratic movement and becomes a mouthpiece of ruling classes in preaching national unity through guns and thereby succumbing to the national chauvinism of the Indian ruling classes. Anarchists, on the other hand, are busy organising international conferences with a view to preaching secession as a universal solution for all nationality problems in the world. There cannot be any internationally uniform solution to the nationality problem. Unlike other questions like that of working class etc., communists' support to this particular question is conditioned by the specific situations of the country and the period concerned. Anarchists are thus mistaken in internationalising the nationality issue in the above fashion and they fall prey to petty bourgeois nationalism by giving calls like "oppressed nationalities of the world, unite," etc. and by splitting the integral agenda of revolution in India into a set of separate armed liberation struggles for different nationalities.
Some Typical Cases
In particular cases where the movements for separation enjoy popular support and have a specific history behind them, they need prudent handling and special solutions. Dismissing all such movements as mere threats to national unity and looking at them as law and order problems cannot certainly help democratic unification.
On the Question of Independent Assam
The emergence of ULFA and the demand for independent Assam has been an offshoot of the Assam movement, which was essentially directed against the backwardness and plunder of Assam. Indeed, there is no viability for secession of Assam. ULFA does not enjoy support from the various cross-sections of Assamese population; rather various tribal groups, religious and linguistic minorities and the tea tribes are demanding autonomy and preservation of their own cultural and linguistic identities. That apart, the emergence of a regional power group, especially through AGP, and its assimilation in the all-India power structure have also thinned the support base of separation. But if the plunder of oil and natural resources and tea etc., continues unabated, leaving Assam under natural calamity and under-development, if the accords are allowed to gather dust and attempts made to resolve the problem by military means, it will only aggravate the sense of alienation.
On Kashmir
We are not averse to the demand for an independent Kashmir or plebiscite, in principle. Still, we are skeptical about the viability of an independent Kashmir sandwiched between two hostile powers, India and Pakistan. In such a situation, there is a potential danger of such an independent country becoming an easy target for imperialist manipulations. Another concern is that such a country could also become a hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism, thereby turning into a detriment to the cause of a larger democratic movement.
If things have come to such a pass, the blame is squarely to be laid on the attitude of the Indian government. The case of Kashmir is completely a special issue given its method of accession, the Hindu religious chauvinistic attitude of the Indian state and bitter relations with neighbouring Pakistan. Kashmir was attached with Indian territory through the Instrument of Accession Act with a specific constitutional promise to accord a special treatment to the state short of independence and have a plebiscite. A special Article 370 was also incorporated into the constitution of India. But Indian government not only never bothered to stick to its constitutional obligations, it also allowed the situation to worsen by adopting a Hindu communal authoritarian approach thus leading to further alienation of the broad Kashmiri masses. The approach of Indian government not only precipitated the Kashmir question but also disturbed Kashmir's tradition of communal harmony.
Any solution to Kashmir problem presupposes a radical change in the attitude of the Indian government. With all our sympathy for the cause of the Kashmiri masses we want to give peace a final chance. We feel that it is still not too late to work out a solution within the framework of India and with this in view we seek the solution of the Kashmir problem by ensuring maximum possible autonomy. Major steps to be taken in this direction include putting an end to state terror, initiating political dialogue with militants, unequivocal opposition to US intervention, and normalisation of border dispute with Pakistan.
We expect that the people of Kashmir and militants should realise the extent to which the secular tradition of Kashmir has suffered a setback because of the killings of pundits by some fundamentalist forces. We also appeal to them to develop closer interaction with the broader secular, democratic forces of India and to join hands in a common struggle against the chauvinistic Indian ruling classes and the state.
Karbi-Dimasa Movement
The Karbi-Dimasa movement for an autonomous state deserves special mention. Karbi is one of the backward tribes having a population of only 6 lakhs in an interior area of the Northeastern region. Here the movement for autonomous statehood launched by our party in the early 80s soon turned into a popular upsurge under the umbrella of a democratic front - ASDC - and successfully uprooted the reactionary and autocratic Congress leadership in the district. Against all- odds, ASDC has been maintaining its unity and orientation. Despite all provocations and 'sugar-bullets' from the government at centre and state, ASDC did not allow itself to get deviated into anarchist path and time and again won the struggle by safeguarding itself from government trickery. In quick succession, ASDC snatched almost all the seats in district councils of Karbi Anglong and then NC Hills as also the Assembly and Parliament seats lying in the region (mostly represented by CPI(ML) members). A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the movement leaders and the state and central governments providing for the transfer of several additional departments to the autonomous councils. The MoU however has not yet been sincerely implemented and the autonomy movement has anyway made it clear that it will not compromise on the basic demand for implementation of Article 244-A of the Constitution to grant the autonomous region the status of an autonomous state, of a state within state. While the councils have turned into an instrument of upholding the voice of autonomous state, they undertake democratic reforms to the extent possible and continue to fight for attaining further rights for the people. The people here not only take part in general democratic movement but also have organised themselves in trade unions, student-youth organisations and women's organisations affiliated to all-India centres led by the Party. ASDC is the leading initiator of the Tribal People's Front in Assam, comprising various shades of tribal movements. Also, it is an important force in Assam People's Front, the revolutionary democratic movement of Assam. With such a comprehensive and consistent track record, the Karbi-Dimasa movement has emerged as a trendsetter for tribal autonomy movements. Its uniqueness lies in the consolidation of revolutionary left ideology in a backward nationality awakening.
On the Movement for Statehood and for a New State Reorganisation Commission
Popular demands for separate statehood within India, and demands for autonomous states of Karbi Anglong & NC Hills, etc., are undermined or sometimes treated as 'secessionists' and pushed into an antagonistic course. It has been crystal clear that neither the rejections of these demands by earlier commissions not the subsequent pseudo-accommodative approach of the government could stop these movements, rather new demands have come up one after another.
The situation is thus ripe for a fresh reorganisation of the states under new conditions and on a new basis. Setting up a State Reorganisation Commission for this purpose is the need of the hour.
The provincial organisation of British India, in the words of State Reorganisation Commission, 1953, was grounded in imperial interests or the exigencies of a foreign government and not in the actual needs, wishes or affinities of the people. The process of reorganisation on the basis of the 1953 commission also could not generate any positive vision in the process of nation building. Though the basis of the reorganisation is popularly known as "language"; in real life the thrust was to satisfy the trend of bureaucratic centralisation and administrative convenience. The question of self-determination and autonomy of different nationalities or ethno-linguistic groups was negated with the plea that it would lead to division of the country into larger number of units. The problems in hill areas, the commission observed, is as much psychological as political. It took note of the historical 'hangover’ of British policy of national park approach to demarcate the tribal zones and to isolate them from external influences but concluded that no proposal for the amendment of the sixth schedule, which would have the effect of encouraging disruptive tendencies, should be entertained.
Jharkhand was negated with the plea that separation of South Bihar will affect the entire economy of the existing state, separation of Chotanagpur will upset the balance between agriculture and industry in the residual state etc. Essentially, it is this very approach of 'neglect or denial of identity' that the Jharkhand people have all along been fighting against.
As for UP, K.M.Panicker, one of the members of the commission, contested the argument of the commission viz., "that the existence of a large, powerful and well organised state in the Gangetic valley was a guarantee for lndia's unity; that such a state would be able to correct the disruptive tendencies of other states", etc., and termed it as "denial of the federal principle of equality of all units". Partition of the state seemed to him as all obvious proposition. However, by now, the futility of the commission's observations in regard to UP have been proved beyond any doubt - and there is a near consensus in favour of a separate Uttarakhand state.
Several new states formed later on were also primarily based on military or administrative considerations. The proposed state reorganisation commission should keep the above in view and examine (1) the demands of statehood afresh with particular regard to the wishes and affinities of the people (2) relations of existing states with the centre and the problem of autonomy within states at various levels so as to promote effective democratisation of decision making, devolution of resources and decentralisation of developmental activities and enlist popular participation.
Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Vidarbha, Chhattishgarh and Telengana are some of the new states in popular demand. In the case of Uttarakhand and Jharkhand, concerned State Assemblies have also adopted resolutions supporting the call for carving out these new states. The case of Uttarakhand is perhaps the least controversial among all statehood movements and a Prime Minister has already categorically declared his government's decision to create a separate Uttarakhand state in his Indepndence Day address. This commitment must be honoured in full and at the earliest and under no circumstances should this issue be clubbed together with other statehood demands.
On Tribal Autonomy
Of late, growing assertion of tribal people is being witnessed in the North-East and other regions. In spite of variations in their concrete demands, essentially it has brought forth the question of' "autonomy" for tribal people.
We are opposed to chauvinistic designs of the relatively big nationalities, e.g., ultra-chauvinistic trend of Assamese and Bengalis in regard to Bodo and Gorkhas respectively. The question of effective autonomy for these communities will have to be addressed with an open mind. Obviously, we do support the demand for an autonomous hill state within Assam comprising Karbi Anglong and NC hills. We also call for effective autonomy for other tribal communities in Assam including the Misings, Tiwas and Rabhas. We are also for regional autonomy or special belt for tribals/ethno linguistic groups as per the merit of the case, viz., effective Bodoland Council with well demarcated boundary; upgradation of Tripura Area Autonomous District Council. Similarly, demands for regional autonomy by small ethnic groups in Assam and elsewhere in the North-East, MP, Rajasthan, etc. deserve particular attention since they stem from the sense of non-recognition and long deprivation of equal participation in economic and political processes. Such tribal areas can be brought under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
To ensure real representation of the Scheduled Tribe population in state assemblies and Parliament, it is necessary to have re-delimitation of certain existing ST constituencies as well as certain other constituencies with a substantial tribal population.
Policy Resolutions on Agrarian Question
I. The Programmatic Basis of the Agrarian Policy
The last five decades have witnessed far-reaching changes in the Indian countryside. The old zamindari as well as other forms of large-scale landlordism akin to serfdom have undergone considerable transformation. The state policy of limited land reforms and its distorted enforcement has spawned a downsized landlordism of both old and new variety and an alliance of bourgeoisie with these landlords.
The new capitalist landlords have by and large taken to direct cultivation and besides, a section of them engaging in money-lending, trade and other rural business activities are emerging as the rural bourgeoisie. Yet often we also come across side by side, old-type landlordism to a considerable extent, including absentee landlordism, extracting surplus in a semi-feudal manner from tenants and sharecroppers. The predominance of absolute ground rent in such tenancies, whether legal or illegal, acts as a major barrier to the free development of capitalism.
The bourgeoisie is promoting capitalism in Indian agriculture based on new landlords and rich peasants. Apart from many of the old landlords who are undergoing transition into new, capitalist landlords, a section of rich peasants are also emerging into capitalist farmers who can also be characterised as kulaks or agrarian bourgeoisie. Under this landlord path of capitalism, penetration of capitalist relations is very slow and uneven and the forces of capitalism are entering into hybrid relations with feudal remnants. The feudal remnants like bondage, usury and other forms of tied relations have been adopted by the capitalist landlords and kulaks for extraction of absolute surplus value. Thus the semi-feudal 'extra-economic' coercion is the essential part of newly expanding capitalist relations, which hinders the free development of capitalist forces among the peasantry.
The introduction of capitalism in agriculture has given rise to a trend of steady marginalisation and proletarianisation of an overwhelmingly majority section of peasantry. There is also the emergence of new class forces and new movements: apart from kulaks who play a leading role in the farmers movement there is also the formation of a huge class of free agricultural labourers who are launching their independent movements for wages and other issues. Yet small-scale farming remains the predominant character of our agriculture.
Though commercialisation in Indian agriculture is now more or less generalised, majority of the poor and middle peasants are still trapped in subsistence or near-subsistence farming, including those who take a part or whole of their produce to the market for the sake of exchanging it for consumption goods. The entire state policy is geared to promoting the landlord-path of capitalism based on a narrow stratum of capitalist landlords and capitalist farmers who grab lion's share of state's resources flowing into agriculture. The broad mass of poor and middle peasantry, apart from groaning under the yoke of semi-feudal remnants, are at the receiving end of the expanding forces of capitalism, viz. these new landlords and kulaks and are oppressed by these classes. Land reforms have neither given them the land nor ensured their freedom. Though nominally free from serfdom and zamindari they find themselves semi-enslaved by the oppressive forces of semi-feudalism and distorted capitalism promoted from above.
The shifting agrarian strategy of the ruling classes under policies of liberalisation and globalisation reinforces the pro-kulak bias of the state policy and accentuates the inequalities among agrarian classes and provides for the direct penetration of imperialist finance capital into agriculture.
1.2. Path of freest and broad-based development of capitalism - the path of democracy - is possible only by basing on the mass of impoverished peasantry, who at present absolutely lack capital resources. The poor and middle peasants will be the principal actors in this vibrant capitalism. Such a path is possible only by challenging head on this agrarian policy of the bourgeoisie and its state. The central objective of the agrarian policy of the party of the proletariat would be to intensify the class struggle in the countryside: between old and new type of landlords and kulaks and their state on the one hand and the rural proletariat and the vast mass of poor peasantry on the other. Only rural proletariat can take lead in this struggle in firm unity with the broad mass of poor peasantry and in cooperation with middle peasantry. The agrarian policy based on such a class line would aim to thoroughly eradicate all forms of feudal remnants, demarcate with and isolate capitalist farmers from the poor and middle peasantry and win over the broad sections of the toiling peasantry from the influence of bourgeoisie and various shades of its political forces, confront the bourgeoisie and its state with a policy of development of small and middle farmers on a wide range of issues covering the entire gamut of the agrarian question, carry out a policy of thoroughgoing land reforms and agrarian reforms and completely break up the landlord-kulak economy. Without this democratic revolution would not be complete in India. This entire programmatic thrust is best captured by the slogan 'Land and Liberty'
II. The Struggle Against Feudal Remnants
2.0 Despite the developing capitalist relations and growing importance of related issues and demands for the peasant movement, the struggle against feudal remnants has remained the main thrust of our peasant struggles and will continue to remain so in the coming future also.
The struggle against feudal remnants is directed not only against old-type landlords and rich peasants but is also targeted against the new capitalist landlords and kulaks. The struggle against social oppression and atrocities through private armies etc. constitute an important aspect of this struggle.
The movements of poor and landless peasants on a whole range of demands thrown up by the distorted capitalist development should be combined with the struggle against feudal remnants in an integral movement.
III. The Land Question
3.1 All-India land reforms scenario at present is that land reforms have effectively come to an end as policy as far as the bourgeoisie is concerned. In the view of policymakers there is only the question of some residual litigations. Perhaps only a fresh upsurge in land struggles by the rural poor can bring land reforms back on the policy agenda.
Reverse land reform, however, has come on to the governmental agenda now. Powerful lobbies are demanding lifting of agricultural ceiling to facilitate the entry of corporate sector and agro-business units into agriculture. Several states including Karnataka, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have taken concrete legislative or administrative steps in this direction. A greater exports thrust in agricultural products is bound create more pressures for a rollback of land reforms. An influential section of the farm lobby is also arguing for the same. A powerful resistance needs to be developed against this.
3.2 The aim of land reforms hitherto carried out by the Indian state has-been to break up old large-scale landlordism into smaller landlords suitable to undertake capitalist cultivation. The size of the landholdings was sought to be reduced to appropriate economic limits through land transfers induced by legislative pressures and settling for different levels of compromise instead of expropriating the landlords and in such a manner benefiting only the well-to-do sections of the peasantry. It was also an attempt to prevent any thoroughgoing land reforms by any radical political force, to preempt localised land struggles and defuse ongoing struggles, to freeze local disputes in bureaucratic and legalist web and to foreclose further land reforms options and so on.
The landlordism that exists now is by and large benami landlordism, which has obtained some sort of legal cover for itself. The land records regarding such transfers have been tampered. No new bureaucratic policy on identifying such transfers, however effective, can tackle this. The courts are protective of landlords in general. Only grassroots struggle can be effective in this regard. Put under State List, land administration and land reforms have been left to landlords-dominated state legislatures and state governments. A small lobby of administrators-official academics, which seeks to bring land reforms back on to the agenda through a state-wise review of implementation, has not made much headway.
In view of all this, land question continues to remain the centre-piece of radical agrarian reforms and 'land to the tiller' remains the central slogan on the agrarian question.
Nationalisation of land is the most consistent and thoroughgoing means for redistribution of land and realising the slogan of land to the tiller. This radical bourgeois measure - which however can be realised only under people's power- is all the more relevant under conditions of distorted and, in some states downright farcical, implementation of land reforms and the rise of new landlordism. While land nationalisation would remain the cornerstone of our agrarian policy for the entire country, this would be raised as an immediate, propaganda and agitational slogan at certain stages and in certain states depending upon the level of development of the agrarian movement and under specific political conditions
Our agrarian policy upholds revolutionary approach in land struggle in contrast to the bureaucratic, legalistic and reformist approach. While land nationalisation remains our basic slogan and direct onslaught upon landlordism and direct struggle for land seizure whether localised or relatively more generalised, depending upon the balance of forces - should continue to remain the hallmark of our land struggles, we can advance several minimum or intermediate demands to facilitate this struggle and to confront the state policy of land reforms.
For instance, demands like reduction in ceiling-limits, regulation and abolition of sharecropping and tenancy, or more thoroughgoing implementation of existing policies on land reforms etc. may be raised.
Though tenancy has been banned in many states (it is legal in West Bengal!), it is widely prevalent on the sly. In all the states exemptions are there. We are opposed to all forms of tenancy including those in their capitalist forms. However, in view of the growing trend of reverse tenancy - rich peasants and kulaks hiring in from poor peasants - we'll have to take care that some generalised policies on tenancy oblivious of this reality does not go against a section of poor peasantry.
There has been a demand that all land ceiling legislations should be listed in the Tenth Schedule of the constitution to keep them or their implementation outside the purview of judicial review. It has also been demanded that the ceiling-surplus land, after notification, should be alienated from the landowner and be, vested with the state. Such demands can be raised by our kisan sabhas.
Standing land tribunals to take up new cases, prevention of land alienation among dalits and tribals, plugging other loopholes like exemptions, prevention of land alienation among poor peasantry due to capitalist renting in by the rich peasants, owning ceiling-surplus land and benami land to be made criminal offence, fresh land surveys under the supervision of peasant organisations, computerisation of land records and right to information etc., are other possible demands.
Seizure of all ceiling-surplus land, benami land, community land, government land, land held by mutts, religious trusts and endowments, and the lands of corporate agribusiness houses and big capitalist farms, restoration of the traditional rights of tribals over forest land and produce, restoration of the tribals' land grabbed by non-tribal landlords and rich peasants, establishing the control of the landless and poor peasants over wastelands and social forestry lands as well as these schemes, opposing land alienation among peasants and fishermen in coastal areas due to land grabbing by business houses engaged in prawn farming etc. are among the immediate tasks of our peasant movement.
IV. Shift in the Agricultural Strategy of the State under Liberalisation
4.1 The green revolution brought about an initial spurt of capitalist development in agriculture. While the area cropped in India grew only by 8% between 1960 and 1987, yield increased by 5.1% and production increased by 8.1%. But this green revolution had faltered at the turn of the 90s. While foodgrains production grew at 3.5% per annum during 1980s, it had decelerated to 1.5% during 1990-96, much below the population growth, despite nine successive good monsoons. If this trend continues this may well mark the onset of a new agrarian crisis. The ultimate reason for the crisis of green revolution strategy is that it is based on a narrow stratum of kulaks. Moreover, this green revolution has not extended much beyond the Punjab-Haryana-Western Uttar Pradesh region and the rice growing regions in the Godavari-Krishna-Cauvery basins and some other parts of the country.
There has been a shift in the government's strategy towards agriculture under liberalisation, especially with regard to investment. While public investment is being reduced in the name of refocusing into infrastructural development, private investment is sought to be stimulated through expansion of credit, more subsidies in certain spheres and higher support prices etc. In a highly stratified farm sector, where more than 80% of the institutional credit and 75% of the marketable surplus is accounted for by farmers having four hectares and above, it goes without saying that only kulaks will be further benefited by this shift in strategy. In effect, infrastructural development is also being increasingly governed by market forces and public investment, apart from registering an absolute decline, is being diverted to current expenditure rather than flowing into long-term asset creation.
This shift in the strategy and other policy measures under liberalisation only go to aggravate the crisis of green revolution. Despite some increases the government is unable to maintain the requisite level of fertiliser subsidy and the resultant unbalanced use of fertilisers only causes erosion of soil fertility adding to the already aggravating problems of waterlogging, pests and diseases thrown up by green revolution threatening sustainable agriculture. Irrigation expansion is slipping behind the targets and the move to privatise the SEBs and increase power rates would only aggravate the problem. Rural banking as been deregulated making credit costlier and its 'targeting' has made it beyond the reach of small and marginal farmers. In short, the recent policy changes under NEP will only reinforce the pro-kulak bias and accentuate the deprivation of poor and middle peasants.
Under the impact of liberalisation there is a growing trend of private sector-led, exports-led crop diversification leading to a marked shift in the cropping pattern with reduction in the share of acreage under food-grains, which endangers country's food security.
Our agrarian policy obviously cannot talk in terms of general agricultural development for it is not the business of the proletariat to devise an agrarian policy encompassing the agrarian bourgeoisie. Rather the entire thrust of the agrarian policy, in this context, would be intensification of class struggles in the countryside between the poor and landless peasants on the one hand and the agrarian-rural bourgeoisie and the state which channelises all the resources into their hands, on the other. We should raise a whole set of specific, development-related demands of the poor and landless peasantry only from the point of view of demarcating their interests from those of kulaks and to intensify their struggles against these kulaks. Due care should be taken that the movements on these demands are also conducted in a revolutionary manner and do not slip into the mire of reformism. Our peasant organisations should demand that all subsidies go to poor and landless peasants only and there should be no subsidies for kulaks. Particular attention must be paid to evolve a set of demands on which campaigns of a state-level and all-India level character could be launched in the interests of small farmers and agricultural labourers.
Various specific issues on which alternative positions to counter the changing state policies may be as follows:
Stepping up public investment, changing the present priorities of subsidising the kulaks and refocusing it to the benefit of small and marginal farmers. Tax on the farm incomes of big farmers.
Cheap and adequate credit on demand to small and marginal farmers; against arbitrary loan waivers to the benefit of kulaks; earmarking 50% or more of cooperative credit to dalit and OBC small and marginal farmers; democratisation of cooperative credit societies; curbing diversion of cheap agricultural credit to non-agricultural business activities by kulaks; abolition of usurious non-institutional credit by moneylenders and merchants; and easy consumption credit for agricultural labourers and poor peasants.
(iii) Crop insurance to all crops without premium for all small and marginal farmers and not only to those who avail institutional credit.
(iv) No privatisation of irrigation works and their maintenance and distribution; no water rates for small and marginal farmers; more investment in areas of rain-fed, small-scale farming; adequate irrigation loans to all small and marginal farmers and energisation of their pump-sets in areas of bore-well irrigation; group irrigation schemes and curbing kulak domination over water resources and establishing water control and water management rights of the broad peasantry.
Extensive flood control measures to arrest soil erosion, compensation to the peasants affected by soil erosion and rehabilitation of the rural poor displaced by it.
(v) No privatisation of state electricity boards; and regular, adequate and concessional/free power supply to small and marginal farmers.
(vi) Free seeds, fertiliser and pesticides to small and marginal farmers and subsidised power tillers.
Liberalised Trade Regime
Administered price regime and market interventions by the state in agriculture would make little sense once the country goes in for mandatory trade liberalisation under GATT-WTO. That would be a qualitatively new, higher step in liberalisation compared to what has hitherto been done. US and European Union are now clamouring for an early phase-out of quantitative restrictions in India. A liberalised trade regime may have unpredictable consequences for Indian agriculture and will prove to be devastating for poor and middle peasants. While prices will witness sharp fluctuations and the kulak-cum-trader will be able to reap windfall benefits, millions of small and marginal farmers will be forced out of independent farming.
At present, going by the recent wheat muddle, the state seems to be playing a game of simultaneous imports and exports to prepare Indian farmers for the WTO regime. A section of the farm lobby, Sharad Joshi for instance, has joined this game as an active accomplice. The possible impact of agricultural trade liberalisation needs to be closely studied and the concrete response formulated as the situation further develops. However, it needs to be stressed that trade liberalisation and other such policies provide an excellent opportunity to develop a direct mass movement of the broad peasantry against the imperialist-dictated policies of the government, especially those forced by IMF-WB-WTO.
V. Certain Other Policy Issues
Role of Merchant Capital
5.1 Commercial capital's domination over productive capital is substantial and widespread in Indian agriculture. State trading in foodgrains and regulation has not substituted private trade but only regulates it and plays a dubious double role. It plays a supplementary role to the private grain and other markets dominated by merchants and merchant-landlords and big capitalists and a good amount of state procurement is made from private traders.
One reason why pre-capitalist relations linger on for a long time even after almost near-universal monetisation and commoditisation in Indian agriculture is the outsized role of merchant capital. Merchant capital speedily brings about commoditisation and monetisation without however having a stake in destroying pre-capitalist production relations or increasing productivity. Appropriating semi-feudal forms - often landlords themselves are the merchants - like usurious advances, it siphons of a huge share of surplus and surplus value from peasants and farmers.
With growing exports of agricultural commodities, big capital is also entering agricultural trade. Speculative trade by big capital in agricultural commodities is a growing phenomenon and India is becoming home to some global exchanges for futures and options in certain agricultural commodities.
The specific demands against merchant capital can be:
Struggle against usurious practices of merchants,
State support to farmers against distress sale,
Remunerative, support prices well above the open market prices,
State support to producers’ cooperatives,
Curbing speculative trade practices of big capital,
More cold-storage facilities,
Enhanced credit facilities/crop and storage loans, and
State-aided marketing cooperatives.
Farmers Movement and the Remunerative Prices Question
5.2 We support the farmers movement as a general democratic movement directed against the bureaucrat capital despite its kulak leadership and our support to the demand for remunerative prices has the added dimension that realising high prices - which however would be very difficult on a continuous basis under bureaucrat capital's hegemony - would go a long way in further clearing away feudal remnants.
We support the popular farmers movements for cheaper input prices subject to our basic stance of opposition to any subsidy to big and large farmers.
We should wean away small and middle-peasants from under the influence of kulak leadership in such movements and may launch price movements in our areas under our leadership to win over middle peasants.
One section of the farmers movement led by Sharad Joshi has become strong votaries of liberalisation and strongly support free market regime in agriculture demanded by the West at WTO. This means a section of kulaks are seeing bright opportunities of exports and collaboration directly with multinationals. This trend of the farmers’ movement should be opposed.
While we support the remunerative prices demand in general, certain exorbitant demands like 'world prices', associated with the blackmail of withholding the grain from the procurement agencies do not merit unqualified support and under certain conditions may even have to be opposed as such demands would only go drastically against wage and salary earners and large sections of poor peasants who are net purchasers of grain.
VI. Policy Approach towards Certain Classes
The New Landlords and Kulaks
6.1 Many of the old landlords, by taking to direct cultivation are emerging into a new-type of capitalist landlords. Additionally, from among rich peasants, a class of capitalist farmers, i.e., a class of agrarian bourgeoisie or kulaks, has also emerged in the Indian countryside. Both these classes of agrarian bourgeoisie appropriate semi-feudal forms for extreme exploitation of the agricultural labourers and poor peasants. Sections of these classes also engage usurious money lending, trade and other rural businesses and have thus emerged as the rural bourgeoisie. The kulaks, despite rooted in agricultural production and developing productive forces, resort to aggressive exploitation and oppression of agricultural labourers and poor peasants and hence play a very reactionary role.
These kulaks have emerged not only from the upper castes but also from among some dominant backward castes as well. These kulaks - capitalist landlords and capitalist farmers - usually mobilise their entire castes behind them when confronted with the radical movements of the rural poor or in the face of assertion of the lower castes - or unite on class basis cutting across caste lines if needed - and resort to cruel forms of social oppression including atrocities and massacres. They also take to commercial activities in nearby towns, develop a nexus with officials and leaders of reactionary political parties and they are the hotbed for many criminal and mafia gangs and private armies. They dominate panchayat and cooperative institutions and corner away the developmental funds.
The land struggle is just one aspect of the struggle against new landlords and it is to be taken along with the struggle against social oppression, mafiadom, nexus with bureaucrats and so on.
The Middle Peasant Question
6.2 Basically this question concerns stabilising the vacillations of this section by driving a wedge between them and the rich peasantry and kulaks. And despite its vacillations this class is an ally of the rural proletariat and poor peasants. Correctly tackling this question is crucial to our further political advance where our mobilisation of the rural poor is already fairly well developed.
Numerous economic ties bind the middle peasants and the rich peasants and kulaks and make the former dependent on the latter - for land, water, credit, marketing and inputs. In the context of state-aided capitalism from above, there is also some overlapping of kulak interests and middle/small peasant interests. At the same time, the hegemony of the kulaks and landlords in the local power structures - especially in the panchayats and cooperatives create acute contradictions between them and middle peasants. A big section of the middle peasants face the constant danger of marginalisation while a small section of upper middle peasants are in an upward mobility.
However, in the absence of a strong organised power of the rural proletariat and poor peasants challenging the hegemony of the kulaks/landlords, the middle peasants would not mount a comprehensive opposition against kulaks on their own.
The middle peasants do have a stake in higher procurement/ support prices and when the kulaks take lead they may join such price movements also. But often price question is not their priority. They are more concerned about the increasing cost of their near subsistence production than 'profits'. Often their priority demands are greater credit, cheaper inputs, seeds, irrigation and so on. It is on these areas they face the monopoly and control of power-wielding kulaks. The more principled approach to unite the middle peasants from the standpoint of the rural proletariat would be to unite with them in the struggle against kulaks and the state for their greater access to and control over such resources.
Agricultural Labourers
6.3 Due to the development of capitalist relations in agriculture, a huge class of agricultural labourers has emerged in the Indian countryside as an independent class. They constitute over 30% of the rural households. Their assertion in wage and other struggles against kulaks is already visible in many parts of the country and is bound to become the dominant trend in the future. It is necessary to organise them as an independent class in an independent organisation.
The general demands relating to agricultural labourers include: trade union rights for agricultural labourers, setting up of a competent authority for the registration of all agricultural labourers, security of employment and employment guarantee schemes with at least 100 days of assured employment, revamping of minimum wage formula and more effective implementation machinery, dispute settlement machinery in every block, equal wages for men and women, 8-hour work, old age pension scheme, maternity benefits, social security and other benefits through a welfare fund, extension of medical benefits and ESI coverage, compensation for accidents, safety measures relating to agricultural machinery, fiscal and. other direct curbs on labour displacing mechanisation, ban on crop diversification away from labour intensive foodgrains in areas of acute unemployment like Kuttanad of Kerala, statutory monitoring committees up to district levels with representations to agricultural labourer organisations to oversee the implementation of Agricultural Labourers Act, self-employment loans, land redistribution, end to bonded and child labour, distribution of waste land, banjar land and forest land for joint forest management, soft loans for group farming and for self-cultivation of small plots, house-sites, strict implementation of Civil Rights Act/SC-ST Act, Anti-Atrocities Act etc., special courts for speedy trial of cases involving atrocities on rural labour, holding SP and DM responsible in the case of massacres of agricultural labourers, special packages for migrant labourers and so on.
Sharecropping, sharecropping-cum-labour service arrangement, bonded labour, wages in kind (often as usurious advance), labour service and feudal tenancy-cum-labour service, etc. are feudal forms of tied labour, which are resorted to by capitalist landlords and farmers for the extraction of absolute surplus value. It is necessary to wage a resolute struggle against such forms.
Wage-related demands are not the exclusive demands of agricultural labourers. The demand for land and other productive assets, for self-employment, 'capital' to purchase 'means of production', or cost of production (like fodder), or access to village common property resources - like fishing, grass etc. - may sometimes be their-priority items. By being agricultural labourers they have not ceased to be landless peasants in good many cases. Sometimes they get galvanised more in land struggles than in wage struggles.
VII7.0 Due to uneven development of capitalism and a host of other factors there are immense variations in the conditions in Indian countryside. The specificities of each area will have to be taken into account and the general agrarian policy has to be integrated with concrete local conditions.

Party Constitution

THE CPI(ML) CONSTITUTION
CHAPTER - I: Name and Flag
Name of the Party
Article 1: The name of the Party is The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist).
Flag
Article 2: The flag of the Party is the red flag of rectangular size, the ratio of length and breadth being 3:2, with hammer and sickle in white inscribed in it in the middle.
CHAPTER - II: Party Membership
Eligibility for Membership
Article 3.1: Any Indian citizen of 18 years of age and above, willing to accept the programme and the constitution of the Party, to work under the discipline of any of the Party organisations, to carry out the task entrusted to him/her and to pay regularly the membership dues, i.e., fees and levy, as decided by the Party, may apply for the membership of the Party.
Basic Norm
Article 3.2: The members of the Party are the vanguard of the Indian working class. They must not seek personal gains or privileges, must lead plain and simple life, subordinate their personal interests to the interests of the Party and the people, be respectful and concerned towards the socially deprived sections of the society and uphold the dignity of the womenfolk.
Recruitment and Enrolment
Article 4.1: The members will be recruited in the Party from among the activists in the mass movements and mass organisation or from within activist groups and circles in various spheres on individual basis through Party branch or in its absence through the next higher Party organisation in existence.
Application and Declaration
Article 4.2: An applicant while applying for membership in a prescribed form shall have to make the following declaration:
"I volunteer to join the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). I will uphold the Party's programme, abide by the provisions of the Party's constitution, fulfill the duty of a Party member, carry out the Party's decisions, strictly observe Party's discipline and will always be loyal to the Party. I will work hard, fight for communism throughout my life and prepare myself to sacrifice my all for the Party, for the people or the country. I pledge to guard Party secrets and never to betray the Party."
Article 4.3: Application of an individual for Party membership must be recommended by two Party members. The Party branch, on finding the applicant eligible for admission to the Party, shall forward the application to the next higher Party committee. Party committee above the Party branch is empowered to take the final decision regarding enrolment of a member.
Article 4.4: A member once expelled from the Party can be readmitted only after getting the clearance from the Party committee which had approved the expulsion.
Candidate Membership and Probation
Article 5.1: An applicant whose application is found in order shall first be admitted as a candidate member and shall be put on probation for a period of one year. After the expiry of the probationary period, either the full membership will be granted or the candidate membership will continue for not more than another six months. The probationary period of a candidate member begins from the day the area-level Party organisation or, in its absence, the next existing Party committee admits him/her as a candidate member.
Rights and Dudes of A Candidate Member
Article 5.2: The candidate members have the same duties as the full members have. They also enjoy the rights of the full members, save and except the right to elect or to be elected and the right of voting.
Full Membership
Article 6.1: The Party branch concerned will examine the record of candidate members at the end of the period of probation and forward the list of candidates qualifying for full membership to the next higher committee. Graduation of a candidate to full membership shall have to be decided upon by the local level Party committee, subject to approval of the district level Party committee. The Party standing of a member is counted from the day of his/her graduation to full membership.
Article 6.2: The Central Committee and State Committee shall have the right to grant full membership, in specific cases without going through the above-mentioned procedure,
Article 6.3: The Party membership is granted for one year and is subject to yearly renewal.
Membership Dues
Article 7.1: All applicants for the membership shall have to pay an enrollment fee of Rs.5/- along with the application. Candidate members after the expiry of the probationary period and on their graduation to full membership shall have to pay an admission fee of Rs.2/-. Full members shall have to pay a renewal fee of Rs.2/ at the time of yearly renewal.
Article 7.2: An earning Party member or a candidate member shall pay a minimum monthly levy to the Party. The rates of levy for different income groups are determined by the Party Central Committee.
Article 7.3: Party members belonging to the peasantry and other sections having seasonal incomes shall pay levy on seasonal basis at the same percentage after computing their income in money terms.
Rights of A Party Member
Article 8: All members of the Party shall enjoy the following rights
To elect or to be elected and the right of voting;
To participate freely in discussions on the Party line and policies in Party meetings, schools, Party journals or in other appropriate Party forums;
To be kept informed of developments in the Party line and policies, and of reports of the Party work, except secret matters, and to seek clarifications with regard to the Party line, stand, policies and decisions;
To criticize any Party organisation and any Party functionary at Party meetings;
To put forward any request, suggestion, appeal, complaint or criticism to a higher organisation up to and including the Central Committee and to get responsible reply from the organisation concerned;
To attend, with the right to defend oneself, discussion held by Party organisation to decide on disciplinary measures proposed against him/her (other Party members may also come forward in his/her defence);
To appeal against disciplinary measures while abiding by the decision of the organisation till the final disposal of the matter;
In case of disagreement with a Party decision or policy, to make reservations and to present one's views to Party organisation at higher levels up to and including the Central Committee provided that they resolutely carry out the decision or policy while it is in force.
Article 9: No Party organisation including the Central Committee has the right to deprive any Party member of his/her rights. Rather the Party organisation should encourage the Party members to exercise their rights.
Duties of A Party Member
Article 10: The duties of a Party member are as follows:
Study diligently Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, Party Programme, Constitution, line, principles, current policies and Party literature as well as Party history and to acquire general scientific knowledge;
To undergo Party education through Party schools or any other method adopted by the Party from time to time;
To maintain close links with the masses and mass movements, to stand firmly by the people, to recruit Party members from among them, to propagate Party line and stands, to learn from the masses and to help the masses raise their consciousness;
To carry out firmly the decisions of the party, to participate regularly in the activities of the Party organisation to which they belong, to work in mass organisation, unless exempted, under the guidance of the Party committee.
To safeguard the monolithic unity and conscious discipline of the Party, remain vigilant against infiltration in the Party of agent provocateurs, careerists, anti-Party elements, double-dealers and other types of bad elements;
To wage relentless struggle against various non-proletarian ideas;
To remain honest to the Party, to match words with deeds, not to conceal one's own political views and not to place distorted facts, to practice criticism and self-criticism, to be bold in admitting one's own mistakes and in rectifying them and to stand in support of the correct positions and in opposition to the incorrect positions;
To pay regularly the membership levy fixed by the Party organisation.
CHAPTER III: The Organisational System of the Party
Democratic Centralism
Article 11.1: The Party organisation is based on and its internal life is guided by the principle of Democratic Centralism. It is opposed to bureaucracy, liberalism, anarchism, individualism, ultra-democracy and factionalism. The Party is necessarily a monolithic organisation and possesses a single will. It must not be a union of groups and factions which make contracts with one another and enter into temporary alliances or agreements. Freedom of thought and unity in action is the underlying message of democratic centralism, under which debates, polemics and contentions, among ideas are encouraged so as to combine and develop theory and practice in a conscious and sustained manner.
Article 11.2: The fundamental principles of democratic centralism on which the Party bases itself are as follows:
The individual is subordinated to the organisation;
The minority is subordinated to the majority;
The lower committees are subordinated to the higher committees, and.
The entire Party is subordinated to the Central Committee.
Leading Bodies of the Party
Article 11.3: The leading bodies of the Party at all levels are elected bodies. The Central Committee can fill up the vacancy, arisen for any reason whatsoever, within the Central Committee by co-option on the basis of simple majority of its total members. Subject to the approval of the next higher committee, the lower committees can co-opt new members. Party committees may, whenever necessary, form leading teams or organising committees at lower levels and Party fractions in mass organisations as well as appoint their incharges. In all cases democratic consultation, as far as practicable, must be undertaken.
Article 11.4: The supreme organisation of the Party is the All India Party Congress and between two successive Congresses, the Central Committee elected by the Party Congress. Higher leading bodies of the lower-level Party organisations are the Conferences and between two successive Conferences, the Party committees elected by the Conferences at the corresponding levels. All the Party committees are answerable to their respective Party Conferences/Congress.
Article 11.5: The leading bodies at different levels shall submit the review of their work before the Congress, Conference or the General Body Meetings of the Party members, as the case may be, to be convened under the directives and guidance of the next higher Party committee.
Article 11.6: The lower unit shall send regular reports to the higher units and the higher units shall keep the lower units informed of the developments. District/regional level committees shall send periodic reports to the Central Committee.
Functioning of the Leading Bodies
Article 11.7: The Party Committees at all levels function on the principle of collective leadership based on division of labour with individual responsibility. The Party resolutely opposes the tendency towards monopolisation of functions and powers of a Party committee by one individual or by a group.
Article 11.8: Decision taken by a higher Party organisation shall be transmitted promptly to the lower levels, shall be thoroughly discussed and explained to the lower bodies and must be firmly implemented.
Article 11.9: Matters concerning international affairs, matters having all-India character, or concerning more than one states, or matters which require uniform policy or decision for the whole country, shall be decided upon by the All India Party Congress or Central Committee. Matters concerning a state or a district and having state or district character shall be ordinarily decided upon by the corresponding Party organisations. But in no case shall such decisions run counter to the decisions of a higher Party organisation.
Elective Principle
Article 12: The election of the delegates to the Party Congress or Conferences and of the members of the Party committees at all levels shall reflect the will of the Party ranks. Keeping this in view, the Party adopts elective principle generally.
Article 13: The Party shall develop the appropriate system of organizational apparatus so that it suits the prevailing situation and conditions of work and also the long-term perspective.
Party Leadership
Article 14: The Party members working in various mass organisations and mass political organisations must work under the centralised leadership of the Party, accepting the guidance and control of the respective Party organisation.
All Party members shall bear it in mind that of all the various organisations of the working class and working people, the Party is the highest.
Article 15: All attempts at forming factions shall be sternly dealt with and shall invite serious disciplinary measures.
CHAPTER IV: All India Party Congress
Article 16: The Central Committee shall convene the Party Congress once in every five years. Under special circumstances it can advance or postpone the Party Congress.
Election of Delegates to the Party Congress
Article 17.1: The Party Congress shall have delegates, as per quota determined by the Central Committee, from the independently functioning full-fledged Party bodies, such as:
delegates elected by district-level electoral colleges comprising the members of the district-level Party committee, the members of the local level Party committees In the district concerned, secretaries of the Party branches, the members of any other district-level Party bodies and any other Party functionaries attached to that district Party organisation;
delegates elected from factory-level and institution-level Party committees;
delegates elected from state-level Party groups associated with the organ, office, departments, undertakings, including the members of the central departments attached to the state Party organisation;
delegates elected from the Party Centre comprising headquarters, central organs, central undertakings, etc.
Article 17.2: The Party Congress may have delegates nominated by the Central Committee, the maximum strength of which shall not exceed 20% of the total delegates having the right to vote.
Article 17.3: Exceptions may be made in view of particular conditions of any state(s) or of any central or state-level department.
Calididature for Delegation to Party Congress and Conferences
Article 17.4: The Party members willing to get elected at any level as delegate to the Party Congress/Conferences shall offer their candidature to the electors. Such a candidate as a Party member must belong to or be attached to the Party organisation where the election of delegates is being held and his candidature must be proposed and supported by a minimum number of electors, the number of which and other rules relating to such elections shall be specified by the Central Committee or by any other appropriate higher Party Committee.
Functions and Powers of Party Congress
Article 18: The Party Congress shall
Hear and examine the political-organisational report of the outgoing Central Committee;
Hear and examine the report of the outgoing Central Control Commission;
Discuss and decide major questions confronting the Party and determine the Party line and tactics in the current situation;
Revise the Programme, and the Constitution of the Party, if necessary;
Revise the Agrarian Programme of the Party, if necessary;
Adopt any other document that may be deemed necessary;
Determine the number of members of the Central Committee and elect the Central Committee;
Elect the Central Control Commission.
Electoral Procedures
Article 19: (a) The outgoing Central Committee shall propose to the Party Congress a panel of candidates for the new Central Committee.
(b) In case delegates have objections to name(s) proposed in the panel, they can propose new name(s) not exceeding the number to be elected. Such proposals should bear consent from the concerned candidate(s) whose name(s) is/are proposed.
Any such candidate reserves the right to withdraw his/her name before the final voting.
(c) Campaign in favour of candidate(s) is allowed within the allocated time.
The panel proposed, together with the name(s) proposed by the delegates will be put to vote on secret ballot system.
CHAPTER V: Central Committee
Article 20.1: The Central Committee is responsible for enforcing the Party Constitution and carrying out the political line and decisions adopted by the Party Congress. It represents the Party as a whole and is responsible for directing the entire work of the Party.
Article 20.2: The members of the Central Committee must have a Party standing of at least five years; however, this stipulation may be relaxed only under highly exceptional circumstances.
Article 20.3: The Central Committee shall meet at least twice a year. Such sessions shall be convened by its Political Bureau or on requisition by 1/3 of its members.
Article 20.4: The Central Committee shall elect from among its members the General Secretary and the Political Bureau.
Article 20.5: The Central Committee may, in special circumstances, convene special Party Conferences to deal with some specific ideological / political / organisational issues of urgent importance.
Article 20.6: The Central Committee may organise the Central Committee members of different zones into zonal bureaus, may form departments, commissions, etc., for specific purposes under its direct guidance and may appoint a Secretariat of the Central Committee, which will look after the day-to-day work of the Polit Bureau and assist the Polit Bureau in the implementation of the decisions of the Polit Bureau or Central. Committee.
Article 20.7: The Central Committee shall appoint the editor(s) of the Central Organ(s) and shall confirm the appointments of the editors of the organs of the State Committees.
Article 20.8: The Central Committee may constitute special committees in rural areas of strategic importance, covering several districts or in the border regions cutting across the boundaries of more than one state or in the metropolitan cities and may guide them directly.
Article 20.9: The Central Committee has the authority to re-demarcate the areas of work of any organisation of the Party.
Article 20.10: The Central Committee can requisition any cadre member for central work and can transfer the cadres.
Article 20.11: The Central Committee, under special circumstances, may disband any lower committee and reorganise it or undertake alternative arrangements until reorganisation.
Article 20.12: The Central Committee may undertake any disciplinary action against any erring individual member.
Article 20.13: In the event of arrest of a Central Committee member, and provided that he/she is likely to remain under custody for more than 6 months, Central Committee may co-opt a substitute member. Such substitute member(s) will enjoy full rights as Central Committee members but will vacate their seat(s) as soon as the arrested member(s) get released and assume their duties.
Article 20.14: In case emergency or large-scale arrests, the Central Committee, the state committees and district committees shall be reorganised into smaller compact bodies. The names of members to such reorganised Central Committee shall be prepared by the remaining members of the Polit Bureau in consultation with the accessible members of Central Committee. Such reorganisations in state and district committees will be effected by the remaining members of the respective standing committees. The reconstituted Central Committee may frame new rules for safeguarding the Party organisation. But, with the normalisation of situation, elected committees shall be restored.
Political Bureau
Article 21: When the Central Committee is not in session, the Political Bureau carries on the functions and exercises the powers of the Central Committee. The General Secretary is authorised to convene the meetings of the Political Bureau.
CHAPTER - VI: State, District and Local Party Organisations
State, Special Area, Regional and District Conferences
Article 22.1: The highest Party organisations in the States, Special Areas, Regions and Districts are the State, Special Area, Regional and District Conferences respectively. These Conferences shall hear and examine the reports of the respective outgoing committees, discuss and decide on the major questions confronting the respective areas and organisations and elect State, Special Area, Regional and District Committees. These committees shall provide leadership over the work in their respective areas.
Article 22.2: The procedure adopted in regard to election of State Committees and below through respective conferences will be the same as the one adopted in the Party Congress. Panels will be placed by respective outgoing committees and the elections will be conducted by the observers deputed by the higher committees.
Article 22.3: The State Party Conferences shall be held once in every three years. Special Area Conferences, Regional Conferences and District Conferences shall be held once in two years. The members of the State Committees must, unless relaxed in exceptional cases, have a Party standing of at least three years, while members of the Special Area, Regional and District Committees must have a Party standing, unless relaxed in exceptional cases, of at least two years.
Article 22.4: All State and Special Area conferences must get the approval of the Central Committee. In the case of any violation of the stipulated rules in convening and conducting such conferences, the Central Committee may either annul the conference wholly or may rescind any of its decisions and/or may take other appropriate measures. The other higher committees have similar rights in relation to the conferences at their respective lower levels.
Election of Delegates to State Conferences
Article23.1: State-level conferences shall have delegates as given below as per quota determined by the State Committees:
delegates elected by district-level electoral colleges comprising the members of the district-level Party committee, the members of the local-level Party committees in the district concerned, Party branch secretaries, the members of any other district-level Party bodies and any other Party functionaries attached to that district Party organisation;
delegates elected from factory-level and institution-level Party committees;
delegates elected from state-level Party groups In the organ, office, departments, undertakings, etc.
Article 23.2: State Committee may nominate delegates to State Conferences, the maximum number of which shall not exceed 20% of the total delegates with voting right.
Election of Delegates to Special Area, Regional and District level Conferences
Article 24.1: Special area / regional / district-level conferences shall have delegates as follows:
the members of the leading teams of the Party branches in the concerned special area/region/district;
the members of the local-level Party committees in the concerned special area/region/district;
the members of the concerned special area/regional district-level committee;
members of arty other district-level Party bodies.
Article 24.2: Party committees convening special area / regional / district Party conferences may also nominate delegates to the same, not exceeding 20% of the total delegates with voting right.
Article 25.1: The state/special area/regional/district committee shall elect its secretary, standing committee and shall appoint editor of its organ, if any, and shall seek approval from the respective higher committees subsequently:
Article 25.2: The standing committee of the respective committee shall exercise the powers and execute the functions of the committee concerned when the latter is not in session.
Local-level Party Organisations
Article 26.1: Below regional/district-level Party committee and above the Party branch, there shall be local-level Party organisations covering an area or a town or a block or more than one block.
Article 26.2: Local level Party committees shall be formed through local level Party conferences. Such conferences should generally take place every year to discuss and finalise the work report and programme for the next year placed by the outgoing committee and to elect a new committee. All full members under the area may be deemed as delegates, if practicable; or delegation may be based on proportionate representation from Party branches, as determined by the local committee and approved by the district committee.
Article 26.3: Members of the local-level Party committees must have, unless relaxed in exceptional cases, a Party standing of at least one year.
Article 26.4: In between local level Party committee and Party branches, wherever necessary, sub-committees may be formed comprising the areas of operation of three or more branches. Such sub-committees are to be formed by the local committee for the purpose of effective coordination and functioning.
Article 27.1: State Committees shall decide on the formation of District and Regional Committees and their areas of operation in their respective states.
Article 27.2: Similarly, State Committees shall decide or authorise the DC/RC to decide on the local Party organisations to be set up between the primary unit (the branch) and the District or the Regional committee and shall make necessary provisions relating to their composition and functioning. This will be done in accordance with the rules laid down by the Central Committee.
CHAPTER - VII: Primary Organisations of the Party
Party Branches
Article 28.1: The primary unit of the Party is the Party Branch organised on the basis of profession and territory.
Party Members organised on the basis of profession shall be associate members of the Party branches in their places of residence and the work allotted to them in their residential area should not come in the way of their main work in their workplace.
Article 28.2: Party branches are the living links between the masses of workers, peasants and other sections of the people within their respective areas or spheres and the concerned leading committees of the Party. Their tasks are:
To carry out the directives of the higher committee;
To win over the masses in their factory/institution or locality into the Party fold through propaganda and agitation and through mass movements;
To recruit new members from among militant, serious activists of the ongoing mass movements and other sympathizers after imparting political education;
To help the higher Party organisations in their organisational and agitational work.
Article 28.3: To carry out the above tasks Party branches shall elect their leading teams, subject to the approval of the next higher Party organisation.
Article 28.4: Party branch shall function under the leadership and guidance of the next higher Party committee. However, in some special cases they may be directly guided by further higher Party committees.
Activist Groups
Article 29: Activist groups shall be formed comprising non-member activists under the charge of a full or a candidate member.
CHAPTER VIII: Party Fractions in Mass Organisations
Party Fractions
Article 30: Party members working in mass organisations and their executive bodies shall be organised into fractions. These fractions shall be completely controlled by the corresponding level Party committees and on all questions they must strictly and without vacillation carry out the decisions of the Party organisations.
Article 31: Main tasks of the Party fractions are:
to ensure that Party principles, policies and decisions are properly implemented;
to unite with non-Party cadres and masses in fulfilling the tasks assigned by the Party; and
to organise and guide the Party members at their levels.
Article 32: All official drafts and panels of mass organisations must necessarily have prior approval of the concerned Party committees.
CHAPTER - IX: Disciplinary Measures
Article 33.1: In the event of violation of Party discipline by any member, the concerned Party organisation, in accordance with its power and sphere of work and considering the merits and demerits of the matter, will take the proper disciplinary measures, such as warning, censure, public censure, demotion, removal from the Party posts, suspension from the Party membership and putting on probation for a period not exceeding one year, and expulsion. The maximum punishment is expulsion from the Party.
Article 33.2: All Party committees must take stem action against members found guilty of violating the dignity of women.
Article 33.3: Members whose revolutionary spirit has suffered erosion and who are not improving despite repeated education may be advised to leave the Party.
Article 34.1: Any decision to remove a member of the Central Committee from the Central Committee itself and/or to place such a member on probation within the Party or to expel him/her from the Party must be taken by the two-third majority of the members present and voting in the session of the Central Committee, and in any case, not falling below the simple majority of the total strength of the Central Committee.
Article 34.2: In other Party committees, such measures shall, however, be taken by majority of the present members, which should in no case be less than simple majority of the committee, subject to approval by the next higher Party committee.
Article 35: A member of the Central Committee who has been identified as an enemy agent or is found to be involved in criminal acts or in grave anti-Party activities shall be expelled from the Party forthwith on the decision of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee. Such a member of a lower Party Committee shall be expelled from the Party on the decision of the Standing Committee of the concerned Party Committee: These decisions will come into effect immediately and approval from the higher committees can be sought subsequently.
Article 36.1: The comrade against whom a disciplinary measure is proposed shall be fully informed of the allegations, charges and other relevant facts against him/her. He/she shall have the right to be heard in person by the Party unit to which he/she belongs and shall have the right to submit his/her defence in writing.
Article 36.2: When a member simultaneously belongs to two Party units, the lower unit may recommend disciplinary action against him/her but it shall not come in effect until and unless it is accepted by the higher unit to which the member concerned belongs.
Article 36.3: The right it to appeal in all the cases of disciplinary action is guaranteed as per article 8(g) of the Party Constitution.
Article 37: In the event of a Party organisation seriously violating Party discipline and showing inability to rectify the mistakes on its own, the next higher Party Committee shall, after verifying the facts and considering the gravity of the case, decides upon the reorganisation or dissolution of' the erring organisation. This decision, however, is subject to the approval of the next higher Party Committee.
CHAPTER X: Central Control Commission
Article 38.1: The Central Control Commission shall be elected by the Party Congress. Its tenure shall be till the next Party Congress.
Article 38.2: The Central Control Commission shall elect its chairperson who shall be the ex-officio member of the Party Central Committee.
Article 38.3: The Central Committee is empowered to fill the vacancy arising in the Central Control Commission in between two Party Congresses.
Article 39: The Central Control Commission shall
Examine and decide upon the cases referred to it by the Central Committee or the Polit Bureau;
Take up the cases of appeal where disciplinary action has been taken by the State Committee;
Take up the cases of appeal involving expulsion, suspension from full Party membership, decision of dropping from Party membership by district or other lower-level Party Committees, against which an appeal has been made to the State Committee and rejected.
Article 40: Rules for the functioning of the Central Control Commission shall be framed by the Central Committee in consultation with the Central Control Commission.
CHAPTER XI: Finances of the Party
Financial Sources
Article 41: The financial resources of the Party comprise membership dues, income from various Party undertakings and the contributions from the mass movements and individual sympathisers.
Financial Management
Article 42.1: The Central Committee is responsible for the Party finance. The Central Committee shall draw up annual budget and allocate funds accordingly and shall appoint an in-charge of the Party finance. The Central Committee shall adopt the annual statement of accounts submitted to it by the Political Bureau.
Article 42.2: The State Committee and other lower-level Party committees shall follow the pattern at the Central level in the matter of management of finance.
Article 42.3: Membership fees shall be at the disposal of the Central Committee. The Central Committee shall decide on the proportions of distribution of levy as well as any other special collection among various Party structures.
CHAPTER XII: Party Members as Elected People's Representatives
Article 43: Party members elected as people's representatives to the Parliament, State legislatures, institutions of local self-government and other public bodies shall function under the guidance of the corresponding level Party committee, or in its absence the next higher committee. To ensure uniformity and oneness in their activities such elected members shall be brought under a single Party group under the concerned Party committee. Relevant rules framed by the Central Committee shall serve as the code of conduct for such representatives and Party groups.
Article 44.1: Nominations of Party candidates for selection of Parliament, State legislatures or councils or centrally administered areas shall be subject to approval by the Central Committee.
Article 44.2: As for the nomination of Party candidates for corporations, municipalities, district boards, local boards and panchayats, etc., rules shall be drawn up by the State Committee.
CHAPTER XIII: Statutory Provision
Article 45: The Party shall bear faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established, and to the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy, and would uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.CHAPTER XIV: Rules, and By-laws
Article 46: The Central Committee shall frame rules and by-laws from time-to-time under the Party Constitution and in conformity with it. The whole Party shall abide by these rules and by-laws.
CHAPTER XV: Amendments
Article 47: The Party Constitution may be amended only by the All India Party Congress. The notice for the proposals for amendments should be given one month before the Party Congress