(DRAFT)
*
Communist Party Reorganisation Centre of India
(Marxist-Leninist)
(CPRCI - ML)
August 1995
Our party-organisation, the Communist Party Reorganisation Centre of India--Marxist-Leninist (C.P.R.C.I.-- M.L.), is committed to the concept of the integral character of the proletarian revolutionary line and its practice.[1] The documents, "Programme for people's democratic revolution in India" and "Path of Indian revolution", codify our general political line and tactical line for Indian revolution. They, along with our view of the general line of the international communist movement,[2] constitute the political basis of our Organisation. The applied understanding of the major organisational principles enunciated here, give the basic perspective of our organisational line. This organisational line and the constitution which codifies it, contain the ideological basis of our Organisation and constitute the regulatory basis for our organisation's functioning internally as well as in its mass practice.
Given the correct political line which finally decides everything, the correct organisational line has a crucial bearing on the life and practice of our party-organisation, including a bearing on the process of development of the political line itself. Based on the general organisational experience of the international communist movement,[3] our organisational line takes into account the organisational experience of the communist movement in our country. It is a means to carry out our revolutionary programme and revolutionary tactical line. It is designed to serve the needs of our developing Organisation, from lower to higher levels.
The downfall and disintegration of the Communist Party in our country was primarily an outcome of the inability to evolve and implement a correct revolutionary line in accordance with the specific features and needs of the Indian Revolution. But wrong organisational practice had its own share in this disintegration. The wrong organisational practice had been the necessary consequence of the sway of the wrong political line and, in turn, contributed to the non-rectification and consolidation of the latter, thus, contributing to the disintegration of the Party.
Due to wrong organisational practices over a long period, many cardinal organisational principles and concepts underwent a process of distortion and have come to stay as such in wider sections of the Communist Movement--viz, democratic centralism, criticism and self-criticism, inner-party struggle, the concept of the mass-based Party, the relation between the Party and mass organisations, between secret and open: work, between the underground section of the Party and the secret-placed section, the relationship between the building up of revolutionary organisation and the building up of a revolutionary movement etc. Our organisational line and Constitution which codifies it, take into account these distortions and attempt to set them right.
The Marxist-Leninist concept of democracy is that of proletarian democracy aimed at protecting and promoting the interests of the proletariat and all oppressed masses. The Marxist-Leninist principle of proletarian democracy, i.e.. democracy and centralism in their dialectical relationship, is the guiding principle for all forms of organisation under proletarian leadership--the mass organisations of class struggle, the organisations of social and state structure and the party of the proletariat. The social-political consciousness of the concerned members being the foundation on which this principle operates, the level of application and practice of this principle varies according to the nature and form of the organisation. This principle gets its highest manifestation in democratic centralism which is the organisational principle of the Party--the highest form of organisation of the class conscious proletariat. The party-members' socio-political consciousness and ideological-political consolidation of the highest order is the essential condition for the proper application and practice of democratic centralism in the Party.
In the Party, the existence and entrenchment of the proletarian revolutionary line and practice constitute the ideological-political foundation on which democratic centralism can be practiced to meet its desired objective--viz, the developing of correct policy and correct leadership in the Organisation. Without such ideological-political foundation democratic centralism degenerates either into bureaucratism or into anarchism.
The aspect of democracy is the means of securing the basis for evolving correct policy or line of action through the involvement of the ranks and gathering their experiences and views. The aspect of centralism is the means first of forging the correct policy through summing up the experiences of implementing the line (and through discussions and debate over any conflicting views in the Party) and then, of enforcing the collective will, for uniformly implementing the political line. Thus is developed the striking power of the Party and the people against the class enemy.
Proper inner-party democracy is an essential condition for correction of any mistake through inner-party discussion or struggle and criticism-self-criticism. Lack of it leads to isolation of party leadership from its ranks, isolation of the Party from the people, and to the growth of bureaucracy in the Party. Lack of centralism or centralised guidance to the practice of democracy leads to anarchism or formal (bourgeois) democracy.
Thus both democracy and centralism are inter-connected aspects of a single entity. Any stress on one to the detriment of the other, deprives the Party of the capacity to formulate, develop and implement the proletarian revolutionary line or policy and negatively affects the evolution of correct leadership at different levels of the Party.
In the present phase of re-organisation of the Party, the leading bodies at various levels should take particular care for encouraging greater involvement of the ranks in the process of developing and implementing the line, through proper inner-party discussions. Moreover, there is a great need to sum up the negative and positive experiences of the past and ongoing practice of democratic centralism, for improving and raising it to a higher level.
Being addressed to the task of organising and leading the protracted people's war, step by step to dismantle and to overthrow the autocratic Indian State and establish people's democratic State in India, the Party of the proletariat will have to remain secret irrespective of whether it is formally banned or not. The concept of a secret party pre-supposes that its entire apparatus of functioning, organisation--committees, cadres--is secret from the enemy and is thus not easily vulnerable to the enemy attack.
In one sense underground organisation means secret organisation i.e., not exposed as belonging to the party to the enemy. In another sense underground organisation means that it is beyond the reach of the repressive apparatus of the reactionary State, though a section of its leadership is known to the State. Underground life, in the latter sense, is meant for those who are already exposed or likely to be exposed, but usually not for others. All these measures are meant for protecting the Party from the onslaught of the enemy so that the Party is able to maintain closest possible links with the masses of the people and to provide constant guidance to them in all circumstances.
At the same time, the Party will strive to acquire and develop the skill and capability to utilise, in a judicious manner, all available legal opportunities--to carry out its tasks of organising the masses in revolutionary struggles, of developing their revolutionary consciousness and of widest possible propaganda of its political policies and views. The main channel of such utilisation of the legal opportunities is that of its members working in the mass organisations in an appropriate manner. Besides, it will also explore the possibilities for taking special measures--such as selectively employing specially trained personnel or creating special political platforms without the Party's identification with them, etc.--for purposes of open propaganda of the Party's views and policies on various problems without dislocating or exposing its secret apparatus.
Along with the proletarian party organisation, mass organisations too are indispensable for the emancipation of the exploited and oppressed masses. The political relation between the mass organisations and the party organisation reflects the relation of partial or immediate interests of the people to their basic or long-term interests. The party organisation guides the mass organisations. Providing constant guidance and practical assistance in a patient and democratic manner--through secret party fractions within the mass organisations and through statements of policy on important issues from without (i.e. from party platforms) as well as developing its members as front-ranking fighters of the mass organisations, the party organisation strives to earn and establish its relation of political leadership, with the mass organisations. In turn, the mass organisations, in their process of development, throw up politically advanced elements from whom the party organisation replenishes its forces. Thus, the party and mass organisations develop reciprocal relation and interaction. Their entities remain at once distinct and closely linked.
The secret party fractions in mass organisations are the main links connecting secret political work with the open mass work of the Party.
Mass organisations are the chief instruments for approaching, integrating with and influencing wider and wider sections of non-party masses. To that end, the Party strives to ensure the distinct identity and mass democratic character of the mass organisations. Any tendency that turns the mass organisations into party platforms or in any way reduces them to pocket organisations should be guarded against and opposed. Because such harmful practices would damage the mass character of the mass organisations and isolate the Party from the non-party sections, and thus would defeat the very purpose of work in the mass organisations.
While the Party-members, working in the mass organisations, are bound by Party discipline in carrying out Party's policies or guidance on various issues in the mass organisations, they have to do so by strictly adhering to the democratic method of mass work (of patient persuasion and explanation) and not violating the mass organisations' own discipline. They have to adapt their politics to the idiom and manifesto of the concerned mass organisation in order to carry the politics from its platform, otherwise to avoid using the platform for that purpose. The level of politics to be introduced in the mass organisation should correspond in general to the level of consciousness of the people and in particular to the nature of the issue at hand. Similarly the manner of introducing the politics should be one of concretely relating them to the life and struggle experiences of the people. Besides, the manner of formulating the demands and slogans, and of conducting the struggle of the mass organisations should be such that the masses are objectively pitted, in due course, against the reactionary system; and thus make them more receptive to revolutionary politics on the basis of their own experience.
Communist revolutionaries should strive to develop and establish democratic functioning of the mass organisations always ensuring the active involvement of the mass activists and people at various stages of taking and carrying out the decisions of the mass organisations. This is a must not only for fostering and promoting the democratic role and initiative of the masses, but also for enabling the Party-members to take up more and more political-organisational responsibilities by entrusting the mass organisational responsibilities to the democratic mass leaders, thus developed from among the people.
In sum, the whole work of the communist revolutionaries in the mass organisations is determined by the twin proletarian revolutionary objectives: A) of establishing the hegemony of proletarian revolutionary politics over the struggling masses, and B) of garnering and developing the latent socio-political aspirations of the people into political class consciousness and of transforming their latent capabilities into revolutionary self-confidence and initiative. Towards this end, communist revolutionaries constantly strive to carry revolutionary politics to struggling masses; help them in forging inner-class unity and inter-class solidarity; guide and assist them in realising and learning to practice their rights and obligations in the self-governance of their own affairs; help them in acquiring the political awareness and capability of exercising their collective assertion and democratic say as against the authority and power of the ruling classes, and that of putting up revolutionary mass resistance against violent attacks of the ruling classes, by forging their own instruments and apparatus.
Our party-organisation differentiates a mass-based party from a 'Mass Party'. The concept of a 'Mass Party' is revisionist. Such a party is composed of militants and sympathisers, who have no class orientation as communist workers. As such it is deprived of the revolutionary content of the Party. On the contrary, a mass-based Party is one which has strong roots in the masses through mass organisations and its political influence, providing constant guidance to the masses in their struggles, and having such membership, which is restricted to those who have undergone a process of class orientation, during the period as a militant and as a candidate member.[4]
The Constitution stipulates two categories of criteria for giving membership: one pertains to political-ideological consciousness (acceptance of Party's ideology and line); the other pertains to revolutionary preparedness (voluntarily to subject oneself to the discipline of the Organisation and personal interests to the requirements of the revolutionary work that one is responsible for).
In order to give membership, it has to be judged whether, after passing through elementary education and training, the concerned person accepts proletarian ideology and line, with awareness of at least the basics of them,[5] and shows in practice a definite direction towards acquiring the consequent proletarian consciousness.
The awareness of the basics of ideology and line should at least be reflected in the concerned person's understanding of the scope and significance of his/her specific field of political work and in the readiness to give preference to collective opinion and interests over individual opinion and interests. The readiness to subject oneself to the discipline of the Party basically emerges from ideological-political consciousness.
At the time of giving membership, the level of revolutionary preparedness is required to be such that the concerned person should be moulding his/her personal life and responsibilities according to the needs of the revolutionary work in the concerned field and that the person should be mentally prepared for any big interruption in the family and professional life in any abnormal conditions, so that he/she can continue revolutionary work even in such conditions. Preparedness to place one's entire time and energy at the discretion of the Party is not a condition for membership. The preparedness to adjust oneself to the requirements of the concerned revolutionary work will be reliable to the extent it emerges from the realisation of, and self-identification with, the social necessity and inevitability of proletarian revolution.
The concerned leadership should ensure that the zeal for revolutionary politics and vigour in activity the concerned person shows, is not occasional or out of personal or sectional interests. Consistency has to be ensured.
Party members are the life-line between the people and the Party. They are the foundation on which democratic centralism is practiced; in the organisation. The party has the responsibility of developing them as proletarian fighters.[6]
After giving membership, it is the concerned leadership's responsibility, apart from the concerned member's own responsibility, to ensure the progressive development of his or her ideological-political level and capability and revolutionary preparedness.
Such a concept and practice go a long way to ensure the revolutionary content of the composition of the Party.
There should be conscious efforts on the part of the members to attend to both the aspects of their development-- ideological-political capability and revolutionary preparedness--deriving confidence and strength from one aspect to develop the other. Besides members' own efforts, it is the task of the leadership to develop both aspects proportionately in a member, for the deficiency in one aspect invariably reduces the efficacy of the other aspect.
At a certain stage of development in terms of ideological-political capability and revolutionary preparedness, different comrades are assigned specific political organisational responsibilities according to the level of their respective development, and according to their suitability for the job on account of their skill and aptitude. For political organisational purposes, they are designated as "cadre" of a certain level.
A professional revolutionary should be one who reflecting revolutionary consciousness and preparedness of a higher order, is totally devoted to the cause of revolution and places one's entire time and energy (physical as well as mental) at the disposal of the Organisation and should be having necessary political-organisational level and capability to discharge the responsibility assigned to him or her. In fact all professional revolutionaries can and should be cadre at one level or another.
Ideally, all or almost all Party cadre should be professional revolutionaries. But at the low level of development of the party organization and the revolutionary movement, it is not practicable. It should, nevertheless, remain the objective for the Organisation and individual comrades to strive for. Meanwhile there will be cadre who have distinctly greater political-organisational level and capability and individual preparedness than ordinary members and who strive to become professional revolutionaries. To be able to become an independent organiser of an area of work (normally under an area committee), a cadre should be a professional revolutionary and should have a clear perspective of the line as applied in that area and the capability to politically guide, train and coordinate the activities of political militants and members in the practical field.
The Committee-system is indispensable for developing collective leadership of the party organisation. To that end, all committees should play their role in leading the revolutionary movement, doing revolutionary propaganda as well as educating and organising Party forces.
So, the system of organisation of effective committees is most crucial for the development of the Party and implementation of its line. While there is likely to be some gap between the respective levels of different committee members, in terms of both kinds of cadre qualities, such gaps should not be so wide that the committee's performance itself gets seriously affected. In this respect, a considerable gap in the levels of revolutionary preparedness in particular, should not be acceptable.
In order to be really effective, all the leading committees should be or shortly going to be committees of professional revolutionaries. For a short while, there may be cases when appropriate cadre are not available for constituting such committees and still the needs of leading and coordinating the existing work require the formation of a committee. In such cases, the actual level and status of that committee, in terms of the political organisational level and preparedness of its composition, should be determined and informed to the ranks, even as it is called an "organising committee" of the level of its operational area. This is necessary for the ranks to know what to expect from such a committee, for the higher leadership to know what are the requirements to guide such a committee, and for the committee itself to know exactly what tasks it can perform now and how to strive to be able to perform all the tasks adequately.
Basic unanimity on the proletarian revolutionary line, and consequently on the orientation of its practice, constitutes the ideological-political foundation of the party organisation as an integral unity. That basic ideological-political content of the Party finds operational expression in the "unity of will and unity of action" which is a unique revolutionary, class attribute of the proletarian vanguard.
At the same time, the "unity of will" constantly encounters divergence of views, as an objective necessity, that is caused either by the incidence of non-proletarian influences on the Party or by the discrepancies in comprehending the dynamic objective reality at a given moment of time. Such divergence tends to partly and momentarily unsettle the "unity of will", and some cases, even to undo it.
On proper handling, the divergence is overcome or clinched through confrontation of ideas that helps rectification of incorrect views and lends more clarity and thoroughness to the correct views. Thus, the very divergence of views that unsettles the "unity of will" in the Party leads via proper confrontation of ideas to the reaffirmation of the "unity of will" on a higher level or deeper basis, by strengthening the common ideological political foundation.
Confrontation of ideas, to overcome or clinch a particular divergence, takes place first, at the stage of determination of a particular line, policy or tactics, and two, at the stage of reconsideration of that line, policy or tactics on the basis of practice of the same or, on the basis of a marked change in some element of the objective situation which constituted the premise of the earlier determination (decision). Whereas confrontation of ideas is necessary and desirable prior to the determination or at the stage of review, in the intervening period, the comrades are expected to receive and enforce that determination (decision) as the collective will of the Party or its body, and not as the decision of some majority section of the Organisation. That has to be so irrespective of the fact whether the divergence is overcome to the satisfaction of all the comrades or not. Even if it is not to the satisfaction of some comrades, they consciously and voluntarily make the enforcement of that decision their own will too. They are able to do so owing to the consciousness that a) the basic unanimity on the ideological-political line being intact, that unimpaired foundation sustains the "unity of will" as the principal aspect; b) the class conscious proletariat can have only a single political will at a given moment of time, and as a party of revolutionary action, it must have a will at any given time of action--the decision offers the only available expression of the collective will of the Party or its body; and c) the Party as the proletarian vanguard Organisation, owing to the very nature of its class and cause and on pain of paying dearly for every serious mistake on its part, is committed to, bound to seek the truth of the relevant objective phenomenon and the appropriate policy-response to it--the collective will is going to review and renew its determination, should the experience of practice so require. Thus, for a genuine communist the question of proceeding in subordination to the collective will is not merely a question of organisational discipline but that of outlook.
Confrontation of ideas to overcome or clinch the divergence takes place in forms which are commensurate with the nature of the divergence.[8]
The three fundamental rules of conduct for inner-party organisational relations in general and inner-party struggle in particular, as formulated by Com. Mao are the quintessential embodiment of lessons based on summing up of past experiences of the inner-party struggle: practice Marxism, not revisionism; unite, don't split; be open and aboveboard, don't intrigue and conspire. These three rules constitute a harmonious whole wherein the ideological political factor as the principal aspect is dialectically linked with the successive derivative factors of organisational approach and method.
Organising work according to a definite plan, at every level of the committee-structure, is a basic principle and characteristic feature of the work-pattern of the communist organisation. This work-pattern is designed to get optimum results from the energies of the Organisation spent at every level. For the work-plan of every committee is based on the concrete appraisal of the problems and prospects for developing political-mass work and political-organisational work, the relative significance of the work-front, the resources available to it, and the priorities of different tasks of the period in their inter-relationship. Moreover, it is designed to lend an integral character to the practical conduct of the whole Organisation (as a concrete manifestation of the integral character of the line of the Organisation). For the work-plan of every committee is the application of the work-plan of its higher committee to the specific conditions and needs of its own field of work, thus having general as well as specific features. So, by its very nature, this work-pattern is opposed to autonomism, routinism and subjection to spontaneity in the activities of any limb of the Organisation, whether at the level of leadership or the ranks. In the existing state of development and functioning of various communist revolutionary organisations firm adherence to this work-pattern is an arduous but all the more necessary task.
The C.P.R.C.I.-M.L., having a basically correct proletarian revolutionary line and committed to its practice in leading the class-struggle, is essentially of Party character. It is not the whole Party, but is part or component of the Party that is being re-organised. In association with all other party-forces (presently organised under different names), it is committed to strive for accomplishing the pressing task of re-organisation of the Party.[9] Such a development as the re-organisation of the full-fledged Party, will not be a matter of just quantitative growth. That will be a qualitative development of the line and standards of maintaining party principles--of functioning, spirit and discipline--as well as wholeness of the proletarian leadership provided to the revolutionary movement of India.
The ideological-political-organisational line of the C.P.R.C.I.-M.L. is a continuation and improvement of the basically correct proletarian revolutionary line that has been there (as diametrically opposed to revisionism of all hues and as distinct from wrong trends) in the communist revolutionary camp. This line has been and is still being practiced by more than one Organisation (as also by some sections within the Organisations following wrong trends), with varying degrees of its articulation and consistency. However, the overall development of this line is still inadequate and uneven. While it provides a basic frame of approach to any problem, many aspects of it are yet to be sufficiently developed and explained. That is required in order to solve some of the major problems being faced in the sphere of mass revolutionary practice and political-ideological struggle and in order to establish the line extensively among the communist revolutionary ranks and to the possible extent among the struggling masses of the people, for the all-round development of the revolutionary movement and re-organisation of the Party.
Such development and establishment of the basic proletarian revolutionary line, invariably proceeds by means of ideological struggle against contemporary opportunist trends, combined with class struggle against adversary class forces. Also, it proceeds by means of the collective effort and ideological-political struggle within the Organisation for resolving the concrete problems confronting the revolutionary movement. In all this, unified and systematic implementation of the line is the key. For effective implementation of the line and its development on that basis (through the summation of experience of that practice), continuous efforts for applying and concretising the basic line to the specificities of the objective situation and of the revolutionary movement in different regions in different periods, are a pressing need. However, in this endeavour, strict adherence to the strategic and tactical orientation of the basic line and effective struggle against the preponderant pragmatic tendencies are obligatory.
Studying, summing up and assimilating of experience must embrace the experiences of the past revolutionary struggles as well. These experiences are not limited to one or two states or some struggles, however important they may be. These include all struggles throughout India.
Even so, to begin with, the experiences of prominent struggles--in particular the peasant struggles which developed to the level of armed agrarian revolutionary movements like the Telangana, the Naxalbari and the Srikakulam struggles--must be properly summed up and assimilated.
In this way, the process of development and establishment of the correct line and leadership has to be carried forward. In the immediate context, the process is targeted upon enabling the Party to exercise unified leadership over various revolutionary struggles led by communist revolutionary forces, in other words, upon attaining reliable ideological-political basis of accomplishing the task of re-organisation of the Party. In the long-term context, the process has to be carried on progressively to develop the political authority of the Party in the Indian Revolution.[10]
The present Constitution will come into force immediately and all provisions are applicable to the present phase of the Organisation as well, barring those, which are substituted by or qualified with provisions given in brackets, and cannot he implemented as long as the Organisation functions as a "part of the Party and not the Party."
This Constitution will be a draft to be finalised in the Party Congress for
re-organising the Party. The Constitution thus finalised will reflect the
experiences of the intervening period. Therefore it can be justifiably expected
that the present Draft Constitution serves the need of the hour for consolidation
and extension of the present party-organisation as well as reorganisation
of the Party.
The proletariat of India is a part of the international proletariat.
The proletariat of India pursues, through its political vanguard, its minimum programme of People's Democratic Revolution of India and maximum programme of socialist revolution of India as a part of the world proletarian revolution. It pursues these programmes as a part of the world-historic responsibility of international proletariat to emancipate itself and humanity from all oppression, exploitation and warfare of class societies based on private property, through revolutionary transformation of the world into communist society.
It pursues these programmes under the guiding ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and the fundamental political frame of the general line of international communist movement. That general line can be stated, in summary, in the following manner:
Workers of all countries unite; workers of the world unite with the oppressed peoples and oppressed nations; oppose imperialism and reaction in all countries, strive for world peace, national liberation, people's democracy and socialism; oppose imperialist aggression, intervention and war; bring the proletarian world revolution step by step to complete victory and establish a new world without imperialism, without capitalism, without exploitation of man by man.
Further, it is specifically committed to keep, in the period of struggle for bringing about dictatorship of the proletariat, firm grasp on the strategic concept of smashing the imperialist chain by concentrating blows on its weakest link; to keep, under conditions of dictatorship of the proletariat, firm grasp on the key-link of class struggle for continuing revolution and promoting production; and to wage unrelenting ideological struggle against opportunist currents of all hues which seek to contest or distort the guiding ideology or the basic frame of the general line.
The Communist Party Re-organisation Centre of India Marxist-Leninist (CPRCI-ML) takes upon itself to pursue these tasks--in its political capacity as a part of the proletarian vanguard i.e., the Communist Party that is being re-organised--till the pressing task of re-organisation of the Party is accomplished.
(i) Any person, man or woman, normally on attaining the minimum age of 18 years, can become a member of the Party if he or she (a) accepts Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought; (b) accepts the Party programme, path of Indian revolution and the constitution; (c) undergoes a period of candidature necessary for proletarian class orientation in outlook and practice; (d) actively participates in the daily work of the Party under one of its organisational bodies; (e) accepts Party discipline in general and the unit discipline in particular; (f) pays membership subscription regularly.
(ii) The Party will have two categories of members: full-fledged members and candidate members. Any applicant for membership to the Party (party-organisation) will first be a candidate member before being made a full-fledged member. Any individual desirous of joining the Party should undergo a period of mass work before he/she becomes a candidate member. He/she should be recommended for membership by two Party members. He/she will be a candidate member till he/she acquires the proper class-orientation in his/her outlook and practice to the satisfaction of the Party. His/her progress will be assessed after every six months period resulting in taking him/her as full-fledged member or extension or cancellation of his/her candidature. While assessing, the class and social origin of the candidate for membership will be taken into consideration. The candidate member will belong to primary unit and is entitled to all privileges of a member except that of a vote.
(iii) The persons who have a political past should be admitted into the Party only with the consultation of the higher committee, which knows about his/her past. (This also applies to those coming from other revolutionary groups.)
(iv) There should be renewal of Party membership at the time of regular Party Congress (All India Conference).
Every Party member has rights and duties i.e., responsibilities.
(i) The rights of a Party member are: he/she, (a) can express his/her opinion on Party policies and activities, (b) can participate in inner-party discussions; (c) can make proposals and suggestions about his/her work; (d) can elect or be elected to any place in the Party according to the constitution; (e) can get a hearing before any disciplinary action is taken against him/her; (f) can appeal against any disciplinary action taken against him/her; (g) can have access to higher committees, including the highest authority, through proper channels.
(ii) The duties of the Party-member are: he/she, (a) must strive to develop understanding of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, and learn to integrate theory with practice; (b) must be loyal, honest and responsible towards the Party and its affairs; (c) must defend the Party and Party line; (d) must work for revolution by placing the best of his/her energies at the service of the Party in all possible ways which the conditions permit; (e) must practice criticism and self-criticism; (f) should financially help the Party in a regular way.
It is the duty of the leading committees to see that these rights and duties are correctly observed and carried out.
The structure and functioning of the Party is based on the principle of democratic centralism. It is the basic means for developing and implementing the Party's revolutionary mass line and for developing correct leadership in relation to Party and class struggle. The following are its main components:
(i) All the committees are duly elected on the basis of their respective political-organisational performance, and function regularly. Occasionally, extended plenums of leading committees and special conferences are convened when required, to help the concerned committees.
(ii) The primary unit will be the direct connecting link between the Party and the people. Opinions of the people and the primary and other lower units will carefully be studied, summed up, assimilated and used to improve and formulate the Party's policies.
(iii) There will be regular reporting from the lower to the higher and from higher to lower bodies. (In the phase of reorganisation of the Party, differences existing about policies in the leading committees i.e., central committee and state committees, can be reported for information to lower committees, without prejudice to the unity and effective functioning of the Organisation. These will be reported if the differing comrade/ committee so insists. Care should be taken not to mention the name or names of the comrades or their number.)
(iv) The Party line will be implemented by all the Party bodies, in the light of the specific conditions of the respective spheres of operation, under the centralised guidance of the higher committees.
(v) Once decisions are taken in a committee or body, the minority will implement the majority decisions as the committee's decisions, likewise, the lower committees implementing those of the higher committees and the entire membership those of the central committee.
Criticism-self-criticism is one of the most important principles of the Party. It enables the Party to resolve the contradictions existing inside the Party; between the Party's line, policies or decisions on the one hand and the experience of the practice based on the Party line on the other. The Party can survive and develop as a living organism to discharge its ever growing responsibilities only if it practices criticism and self-criticism.
The following are the guidelines to be observed by all the units.
(a) Criticism-self-criticism is based on the Party line and its practice. It is governed by the dictum; "Cure the sickness to save the patient".
(b) Criticism must be made within the Party and the concerned unit and not outside it.
(c) Criticism regarding the higher bodies or against any of their decisions should be sent to the concerned committee. Any criticism regarding the conduct of the comrades of the higher committee should be sent directly to the secretary of the committee to whom he/she belongs.
The objective of the inner-party discussion is to correct, improve and make necessary changes in the Party policies within the frame-work of the Party's fundamental line. Inner-party discussions should lead to the realisation of this objective. Considerations of formal democracy and authoritarian rejection of any inner-party discussion and struggle leads to the derailment of the Party. No part of the Party has the absolute right to reject or impose on the Party the holding of inner-party discussions.
a) Any party member and any unit can demand clarification, discussion and improvement of various aspects of the Party's line and policies.
b) The Central Committee should study all aspects of the issues involved in such demands. The committee should decide whether an inner-party discussion is to be opened or not, around those issues and at that time. Such a demand coming from a part of the C.C. or from a state committee should be reported in the Organisation. If the state committees representing one-third of the membership demand such discussion, the Central Committee should open it. In case that demand is not accepted by the C.C., the concerned section can press for requisitioning the Congress/ Conference to decide the issue. When opened, the discussions should be conducted in an orderly way i.e., the issues under discussion should be clearly formulated and after a thorough and systematic discussion, should be summed-up in a positive way. All questions arising out of such a discussion should be answered; corrections and improvements, if necessary, should be made. Necessary measures should be taken to incorporate them, if any, into the Party line and policies.
Party discipline is conscious and voluntary. Hence it is a part and parcel of a member's Party life. The same applies to units as well.
It is observed and carried out in the following manner:
a) Party units will take decisions in accordance with the Party line. No decision should go against the Party line.
b) Violation of the Party line and Party decisions is incompatible with the discipline of the Party. Acceptance in words and violation in deeds is the worst opportunism and this tendency must be fought.
c) In order to take disciplinary action against any member, a correct procedure should be followed which is as follows:
(i) Disciplinary action may take the form of warning, serious warning, demotion, suspension, removal from membership and expulsion.
(ii) All disciplinary actions are taken only when one commits violations of discipline or carries out anti-Party activities. No action is taken against any member for holding differing views unless they come in way of discharging hits/her responsibilities.
(iii) The member is given the opportunity to rectify his conduct during the period of disciplinary proceedings.
(iv) Suspension will be for a definite period. The concerned committee should review the situation at the end of the period and take further action in accordance with the conclusion emerging out of the review.
(v) Expulsion from the Party is the highest form of punishment. Therefore such an action should be taken after mature consideration. It should be implemented only after the higher committee has approved of it.
(vi) Asking for explanation from and intimating of action against the member should form part of the disciplinary proceedings.
(vii) The member against whom the action is taken has a right to appeal to all higher bodies including the highest organ i.e., Party congress.
(viii) The procedure will be the same for defaulting Party committees. The form of action will be warning, suspension and dissolution.
The Party organisational set up should be movement oriented.
The following are the component bodies of the party organisation:
A. Party Congress (All India Conference)
B. Central Committee
C. Central Control Commission
D. State Conference
E. State Committees
F. Intermediary Committees
G. Primary Units
The Party Congress is the supreme body of the Party. It will normally meet once in four years. The Central Committee will decide the number of delegates to the Congress on the basis of membership including candidate members. The delegates representing the candidates will have voice but not vote. The CC will submit a political organisational report to the Party Congress. It will contain among other things the summing up of experience gained by the Party while implementing Party's political and organisational line during the intervening period since the previous Congress. The Congress will discuss and adopt it. Amendments to the programme, the path and the constitution, if any, will be discussed and adopted. The Congress will elect the Central Committee and Central Control Commission.
Under special circumstances, the CC on its own can call for special congress with the delegates elected on the basis of membership without going through the process of conferences down below. The CC will also convene such a congress if the SCs representing the majority of the membership requisition it. Such a congress will have the validity of a regular Congress.
In between two Party Congresses the Central Committee is the supreme body of the Party. The CC will sit in session periodically to review its activities, national and international situation and work out the tasks emanating from it. It will take necessary political and organisational steps to ensure proper functioning of the state committees and committees down below. It will formulate its political and organisational policies within the framework of Party programme, path and constitution, and decisions of the Party Congress. The CC can make changes, if need be, in the policies adopted by the Congress within the framework of the basic Party line and subject to the ratification by the next Congress. It will organise and guide inner-party discussions, if and when necessary. Whenever necessary it will hold extended plenums of the CC and Central Conferences to have wider discussion and consultations on important policy matters. The decisions arrived at in these forums are to be approved by the CC before they are enforced. The members of the CC and members of the Central Control Commission shall have the right to participate as full delegates (ex-officio), in the extended plenums, conferences and the congress. If the ex-officio delegates are not re-elected to the CC, the Congress/Conference will decide their new placing. If it does not, then they will belong to the immediate lower body automatically. (The C.C. should decide their specific deployment according to the concrete conditions.) The CC will elect a Polit Bureau (or central secretariat) which will be responsible for political and current work of the Party, taking political and organisational decisions of the CC. It will be a standing central body responsible to the CC. The CC will appoint Editorial Boards for its organs. These Editorial Boards will function under the guidance of the CC.
The Central Committee has the right to remove any member of the committee for gross breach of discipline or anti-party activity after due warning, with a majority decision, subject to the ratification of the next Party Congress.
The Central Committee can fill any vacancy caused in it between two Congresses (the CC can co-opt new members to it. But the co-opted members should not exceed one-third of the elected members of the CC).
The Central Control Commission is the highest body in between two Congresses to look after the proper observance of constitutional provisions inside the Party. It will go into appeals regarding disciplinary proceedings and give its verdict. It will audit the accounts of the CC. (The CC will discharge the responsibilities of Central Control Commission. The CC will be elected by the All India Conference to be normally held every three years.)
As a part of preparations for the Party Congress (All India Central Conference) state conferences will be held under the guidance of the CC, where state units exist. The delegates for the Party Congress (All India Conference) will be elected by the state conferences. These conferences will discuss and adopt the political organisational reports submitted by the respective state committees and elect new state committees. The state committees will decide the number of delegates to these conferences on the basis of membership including candidate members. The delegates representing the candidate members will have voice but no vote.
The State Committee will guide the party work and functioning of the intermediary committees in the state. It will work out and implement the specific programmes for the state under the guidance of the CC. It will ensure implementation of decisions and policies of the CC and the state conference in the specific conditions obtaining in the state. It will hold its sessions at regular intervals to take stock of its activities and the activities of the intermediary committees and take organisational measures accordingly. It is entitled to take political organisational as well as military decisions, regarding the work within its jurisdiction within the framework of the Party line and decisions of the CC on specific issues. It will elect its secretariat and a secretary to discharge day-to-day responsibilities according to its decisions. The state committees can have their state organs with the approval of the Central Committee. The state committees can remove any of its members from the committee, for violation of discipline or for anti-party activities, by the decision of the majority and with the approval of the CC.
(i) Between the state committee and primary units there will be intermediary committees such as Regional committees, Area committees, City committees, Branch committees at village. locality and town level.
(ii) All these committees will be elected in the respective conferences or general body meetings where their previous work will be reviewed and approved and delegates to the next higher conference elected.
(iii) The conferences or general body meetings are held at the time of Party Congress. If necessary, conferences can be held at other times with the permission of the higher committee.
(iv) The intermediary committees and primary units can remove any member from their ranks for gross breach of discipline and for anti-party activities after due warnings, by the decision of the majority of the members and with the approval of the higher committees.
(v) The area of operation of each committee will be decided by the next higher committee, taking: the needs of the movement into consideration.
(vi) The size of the committee should be determined keeping in view:
a) Prevailing conditions of intense repression or relative relaxation and, b) needs of the movement.
Too small a committee is likely to become a victim of subjectivism, too big a committee will become unwieldy and it cannot function effectively.
(i) The primary unit is the cell. It is the direct connecting link between the Party and the masses of the people. A cell should consist of at least three members. When there are more than five members in a place two cells can be organised. When more than one cell begin to function, Branch committee should be formed. Such units have their elected secretaries and function in their respective areas under the guidance of their next higher committees.
(If the needs of the revolutionary movement in a state demand a different structure, the state committee can organise accordingly, with the permission of the Central Committee.)
(ii) During the period of Congress/Conference, members of primary units may be temporarily reorganised for the specific purpose of study-discussion of Congress/Conference material and for electing delegates, as prescribed.
(i) Party members in mass organisations will form themselves into a fraction at each level and work under the guidance of Party committees or unit of the appropriate level.
(ii) All fractions must carry out the decisions of these concerned Party committees.
(iii) A fraction cannot take the place of the Party committee, in an area where the concerned mass organisation functions, unless higher committee constitutes and empowers it to carry on party work.
The Central Committee and the state committees are entitled to have their bylaws within the framework of this constitution. Bylaws of a state committee should be approved by the Central Committee. (All such bylaws require endorsement by the next Central Conference. In case of serious objection in the Organisation, the bylaws would require approval by a Central Plenum or endorsement by the Central Conference, as the case may be, within one year.)
1. Refer to our Unity Resolution "A Consolidation of the Proletarian Revolution Trend, An Advance Towards Re-Organisation of the Communist Party of India" for explanation of the concept regarding the integral nature of the proletarian revolutionary line.
2. Refer to the Preamble of the Constitution and the international section of our Unity Resolution "A Consolidation of:.." for having the gist of our view concerning the general line of international communist movement.
3. Our Organisational line is based on the revolutionary organisational principles enunciated by Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao and tested in practice by international communist movement under their leadership. The organisational thesis of the Comintern's third congress (1921) drafted under the guidance of Lenin has been an international guideline as far as the party organization is concerned.
4. Party organisation recruits members by educating and training those elements who come forward with revolutionary zeal and militancy in the mass struggles waged under its guidance or influence. Initially when such elements come under the party organisation's influence they come with a certain revolutionary consciousness and a certain confidence in it. The initial revolutionary consciousness usually is not proletarian revolutionary consciousness but that of the revolutionary class from which they have come. Similarly, the confidence in the party organisation usually is less out of clarity or understanding of its line and more on account of the sincerity and ability of Party comrades in solving the problems of the concerned struggles. It is the party organisation's task to develop this initial consciousness and confidence into proletarian revolutionary consciousness and confidence in the Organisation based on the understanding and acceptance of its cause and line.
5. By basics of ideology we mean cardinal points of historical materialism such as class struggle being the motive force of social development; how the broad masses of people have been and are the real makers of history; every social revolution took place under the leadership of a certain class; with every social revolution old modes of production and production relations are replaced by new ones; all earlier revolutions were led by property owning classes replacing one system of exploitation by another system of exploitation; how in the present era the proletariat is the most revolutionary class and motive force of world-development; proletarian revolution is different from the past revolutions because it aims for the abolition of exploitation private property and for a classless society; proletariat of all lands strives for world revolution and has an internationalist outlook; Indian revolution is a part of world revolution etc.
By basics of our political line we mean: the difference and connection between the respective stages of people's democratic revolution and the socialist revolution in India: enemies and friends of our revolution; agrarian revolution being the axis of our revolution; the relation between Party, United Front and armed struggle and how they are to be developed. The concerned person should also be aware of the major wrong trends operating against our ideology and line.
6. In our country, the composition of the membership being predominantly of a petty bourgeois nature, a proletarian class orientation is necessary for the entire Party. Of course, the Party would always strive to improve its class-composition by recruiting, in good measure, members from among the toiling people, particularly the working class. Still, given the nature of Indian society and the strategic course of Indian revolution, that endeavour has its own limits. Besides, even our working class, replenished as it is by pauperised peasantry, is not free from such an influence. Therefore, it is quite natural that the petty bourgeois characteristics together with feudal survivals are likely to engulf the Party unless it has proletarian class orientation. Such an orientation has to be developed by ideological work along with participation in class struggles as well as by developing close ties with the toiling masses. A Party member can understand, utilise, carry out his rights and responsibilities only if he possesses the necessary proletarian class orientation and ideological level.
7. The consciousness and preparedness al the time of taking membership will be elementary (notwithstanding the knowledgeability of some educated sections) and will be a sort of commitment to develop themselves under the guidance of the Party. It is the active party life and
involvement in consistent revolutionary practice that are crucial; as a base for the development of ideological-political consciousness and revolutionary preparedness.
At the time of the renewal of membership of organisational review the respective leading committees are to mark the progress on this count and to make an appraisal of the obtaining state of membership under their jurisdiction. Should they detect any loose membership, they are to concretely identify particular weaknesses among such members and also identify the committee's failure that might have led to or allowed continuance of such weaknesses. Consequently they are to plan and share with the concerned members the practical steps to be taken by the members as well as the committees for overcoming the weaknesses within a certain time frame. At the end of the set time frame the progress would be reviewed and the question of membership of such comrades he resolved.
8. The divergence may pertain to (i) situational appraisal and tactical stands based thereon or some stray thread or streak of thinking getting reflected in the process of solving day-to-day problems of the revolutionary movement; or (ii) some pervasive tendency of thought and conduct having considerable bearing on the revolutionary movement. Generally, the process of confrontation of ideas encompasses the elements of discussion, persuasion, recording of dissenting opinion, reconsideration based on new practice, moderate criticism. However, in latter case it may require serious struggle (sharp criticism, debate and refutation) and self-criticism so as to check that tendency from developing into a full-fledged opportunist trend and coming into conflict with the whole frame of the basic line and its ideological-premises, thus threatening the unity of the Party. In that eventuality, i.e., the emergence of a full-fledged opportunist trend, the divergence acquires an antagonistic character and requires to be clinched through the necessary polarisation and re-alignment in a process of exposing and repudiating the opportunist platform as well as a few incorrigible elements and deepening the unity among revolutionary forces.
In the phase of re-organisation of the Party, the factor of the existence of more than one communist revolutionary organisations, makes the process of inner-party organisational struggle quite complicated and hard to manage, particularly in the eventuality of serious differences. Of course, deficiency of the proletarian revolutionary ideological-political foundation and lack of entrenchment of the proletarian core in the existing communist revolutionary organisations, constitute the basic factor that robs them of the requisite condition and maturity for satisfactory handling of the internal two-line struggle. Still, the striving towards proper handling of this problem is generally vitiated by two wrong notions or postures. One, there is the notion or posture that the existing Organization, being only partial manifestations of the Party, do not require the essential observance of the Party principle regarding the supremacy of the collective will and putting in of the best possible efforts to forge that will. This wrong notion encourage divisive tendencies, ignoring the fact that waging of struggle for the consolidation of Party forces, on the basis of the proletarian revolutionary line, within the particular frame of the existing Organisations is a way of advancing the process of re-organisation of the full-fledged Party by developing these building-blocks for the same. Two, there is the notion or posture that any particular Organisation, it may be under the name of the party or otherwise, requires absolute adherence to the Party principle of conducting two-line struggle within the confines of the given organisational frame. This wrong notion encourages sectarian tendencies ignoring the fact that Parly forces exist outside the particular organisational frame of any one of the existing Organisations and a communist's responsibility to the Party forces cannot be partitioned by circumstantial or organisational walls.
9. Refer to our Unity Resolution "A Consolidation..." for a clearer view of our concept of the re-organisation of the Party.
10. Actually, the authority of a leadership in the Party and the authority of the Party in the revolution are in a sense, manifestations of the authority of the proletarian revolutionary line within the Party and within the revolution respectively. In both cases, the authority rests on the basic consistency of their role in inheriting, defending developing and materialising the proletarian revolutionary line.