Ninth Congress of the Party Successfully Completed

Observer

The Ninth Congress process of the CPI (ML) started in the first week of June with the beginning of the Branch and local conferences was successfully completed with the mighty rally and Public meeting on 7th November at comrade Charu Majumdar Nagar on the occasion of the 94th anniversary of the great Bolshevik Revolution of Russia, followed by the five day long Congress from 8th to 12th November at Shahid Bhagat Singh Hall in comrade Bhagavati Charan Panigrahi Nagar at Bhubaneswar. The intensive campaign organized at Bhubaneswar and in nearby Cuttack and Puri districts had succeeded in taking the message of the Party Congress to the masses and in inspiring many thousands of them joining the rally. As all participants in the Congress had agreed in one voice the Orisa state committee of the Party and the class and mass organizations, especially the Basti Suraksha Manch of Bhubaneswar had carried out excellent campaign and exhibited superb organizational skills to make all the organizational arrangements almost perfect.
The mobilization from the states especially Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, and all other states with hundreds of red flags and banners and the cultural troupes from Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand along with the revolutionary slogans raised in different languages made the rally militant, colorful and powerful. Through this successful 7th November rally and public meeting of thousands of comrades with large number of women the message of the Party that it shall persist on the path of overthrowing the reactionary state and ushering in a People’s Democratic state overcoming all obstacles was made absolutely clear.
The presence of fraternal delegates from USA, Germany, Congo, Morocco, Ukraine, North Kurdistan-Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bangladesh and an observer from Iraq was a proof of the success of the three decades long efforts of the Party to initiate the reorganization of the Communist International (Comintern) dissolved in 1943.
The first step towards this was accomplished through the founding of the International Coordination of Revolutionary Parties and Organizations (ICOR) in October 2010, already uniting the revolutionary parties and organisations of 35 countries in which CPI(ML) had played an important role along with the MLPD of Germany and other parties. The presence of such a strong contingent of fraternal parties showed the importance given by the Party to strengthening the proletarian internationalism in this period of intensifying crisis of the imperialist system, brightening the prospects of revolutionary advances the world over. That these delegations not only extended greetings but also participated in the seminars and even in the discussion on the draft documents proved the strengthening of a new spirit of international solidarity and free exchange of views.
As a step towards broadening the debate on the draft documents, the practice of making them available to not only fraternal organizations within and outside the country, but also to outside forces was taken a step further this time by publishing them even in the website and facebook of the Party, inviting opinions, criticisms, amendments etc, with the assurance that all such comments received shall be published in the Party organs in different languages. Though not many such comments were received, it is a bold step towards democratizing the debate on the draft documents which shall prove fruitful in coming days. As a Part of this practice, delegates from the five fraternal organizations from the country were also participated in the discussion on the drafts documents, besides extending greetings and participating in the seminars. They addressed the public meeting on 7th November also, showing how confident the Party is to face ideological political debates, however sharp it may be.
As part of democratizing the debate, all the Party members/candidate members and those outside the Party were allowed to send amendments to the draft documents up to 31st October to the Party center, and all those amendments even those send after the state conferences were processed and allowed to be discussed after the recommendations of the CEC on them were made known. Though this practice was started for the first time, it gave opportunity for a healthy debate on the various aspects of the drafts, with each such amendment being put to vote before accepting or rejecting. Similarly, unlike the past practice, the proposed panel for the new Central Committee and Control Commission adopted by the outgoing CC was made available to the delegates on the first day itself so that they could present alternate names if any to the panel before the stipulated time to the Election Committee elected on the first day along with the presidium, steering committee and minutes committee. Though no new names were put forward, the election was conducted to make sure that only those who get more than 50% of the votes of the delegates are elected to the CC and Control Commission. This practice followed from the area conference onwards also helped the process of democratizing the organization.
Party Program
The studies on the concrete conditions at international and national level initiated from 1979 when the Party reorganization process was initiated was taken to a significant step forward in the 2009 All India Special Conference with the adoption of the International document analyzing the transformation of colonial forms of plunder to neo-colonial forms by US led imperialist forces after the Second World War and calling for intensifying efforts to speed up the reorganization of the Communist International, document on character of Indian state which characterized India as a country under neocolonization, the document on principal contradiction and the Path of Revolution.
The Ninth Congress adopted the Party Program based on the perspectives arrived at in 2009, amended the Party Program, evaluated the experience from 1970 Eighth Congress to Ninth Congress, especially about the advances made during the last two years, a resolution calling for developing the Path of Revolution according to the new Party Program and the Political Resolution calling for intensifying the Party Reorganization, developing the ideological struggle to develop the theory and practice of revolution  based on the line of utilizing all forms of struggle to mobilize the masses to create conditions for countrywide people’s uprising for the capture of political power under the leadership of the proletariat. The importance the Party gives to develop the understanding about Imperialism in the neo colonial phase was underlined by the completion of the study on it by comrade P.J. James based on the orientation arrived at by it, and its release during the Congress along with a seminar on the subject with the participation of the fraternal delegates from abroad and India.
The Party Program analyses that if feudalism was utilized as its social base by imperialism during colonial times, under neo-colonization it is no longer so and capitalist relations under domination of imperialist capital-market relations and technology are intensified, calling for developing the Path of Revolution according to present realities. It points out how under the so-called imperialist development policy the contradiction between capital and nature has sharpened calling for intensification of the struggle for the overthrow of the imperialist system and its lackeys all the more urgent to save human race from a catastrophe. According to the sharpening of all major contradictions and taking lessons from the severe  reverses suffered by the ICM during the post Second World War decades, it has developed the People’s Democratic tasks. The Party program calls for creating conditions for the seizure of political power through people’s uprising by the intensification of the class struggle in all fields.
During the Congress an in-depth discussion On the ideological Challenges Confronting the ICM was held in a seminar on 11th November evening, in which fraternal delegates also actively participated. Another seminar: On Communist Approach to Dalit, Adivasi, Minorities and Women Question held on 9th November also attracted lot of attention.
The Delegates elected a 29 member new Central Committee which re-elected comrade K.N. Ramachandran as the General Secretary. A three member Central Control Commission was also elected. Delegates and observers from 19 states and overseas delegates participated in the Congress which concluded with the call of the General Secretary to make this important Party Congress decisions historic by taking up the challenge of intensifying class struggle in all fields based on the new Party Program, Constitution and Path of Revolution.
As scheduled when the red flag was lowered at 5 pm on 12th November amidst singing of International in different languages and militant slogans in which all the fraternal delegates also participated, the CPI(ML) was taking a significant step towards the completion of the PDR in our country through this Congress of unity and ideological political advances.