CPM can solve its confusions: Isaac *Pioneer News Service | Thiruvananthapuram* CPI(M) central committee member and State Finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac, criticised by traditionalists in the party as the architect of the neo-liberalist revisionism in the party, has offered his explanation to the confusion prevailing in the Marxist party at various levels in the era of globalisation and liberalisation.
After his policy document at the recent State committee meet that termed the new calls for a Second Land Reforms Movement as a slogan of extremist elements - in a direct attack against Chief Minister and party Polit buro member VS Achuthanandan, and called for further liberal acts in the LDF Government, Isaac on Tuesday said confusions in the party were nothing to be concerned about. He said confusions in the organisation were natural as changes occur to the political positions and tactics in accordance with the need of the times. The party was meant to solve such problems, he said. The party - CPI(M) - would adopt appropriate positions and decisions after examining the points of confusion according to the organisation's principles, Isaac said. The LDF Government's functioning would be improved by winning the confidence of the people after explaining such issues to them, he said. Isaac said providing relief to people was not the sole function of the Government. "We cannot move ahead without adopting measures envisaging long-term development. The CPI(M) is putting forth a perspective that there should be long-term development along with relief," he said. The Minister said that the State would not be able to achieve development without development in infrastructure. Facilitation of infrastructure development was the duty of the Government, he said. The development of the State would get a new speed in some years if some Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 8,000 crore was spent every year for this, he claimed. "The party is putting forth a development-oriented perspective," he said. Isaac said that the party organisation should be strong for the smooth move ahead by solving the confusions that arose from time to time. The CPI(M) in recent times had witnessed certain kind of divisonist divergence which should never have taken place in a Communist party, he said, in an obvious reference to the group activities in the party staged by the traditionalist faction led by Achuthanandan. The weapon to counter such developments was the party itself, he said. CPI(M)-watchers see Isaac's statements as part of a determined bid to justify the neo-liberalist position the party had presently taken by giving importance to his theory of Communism in the modern age. In an article on August 12 in party organ Desabhimani daily, titled "Land Reforms: Now What?" he had tried to explain how the idea of second Land Reforms was a harebrained one. Isaac's theory is that the land reforms movement in the State were the result of a series of struggles of five decades by farmers and farm workers who constituted 95 per cent of the people against the feudalists who constituted a mere five per cent. But, he held that, in the new political and social reality, this theory was not practically adoptable. Those who supported the idea of a Second Land Reforms should understand that they were trying to pitch farm workers who could come to a mere 20 per cent to 30 per cent against farmers who constituted a mere 20 per cent in the State. Such a move was not aimed at uniting people but at dividing them, he warned. The neo-liberalist faction in the party headed by State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and Thomas Issac - which is also the official leadership - is of the opinion that hard-line Communist theories were not practical in the changed world. This particular group is not averse to having special economic zones in the State and growth in the real estate sector. At the same time they do not see agricultural growth as important as industrial development, a point opposed by the traditionalists. On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 4:25 PM, Anivar Aravind <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > Leftist Babel in Kerala > > Posted by: *jdevika* | 20 August 2008 > > http://kafila.org/2008/08/20/leftist-babel-in-kerala/ > > There is still the eerie silence here about the land struggle at Chengara, > but we are nearly deaf from listening to talk, talk, and more talk about the > redistribution of surplus land to landless dalit people. Everyone, from > Karat to Pinarayi Vijayan to VS, to even that undaunted champion of liberal > 'minimum entitlements' welfarism, T.M. Thomas Isaac, is talking of > redistributing surplus land to landless dalits (adivasis, according to > some,or landless 'poor' according to others, 'poor' according to yet > others…). > > That seems rather odd.Talking with some minor CPM intellectual-* > bhikshaamdehis* the other day (who are of course still patiently waiting > for 'more and accurate information') I could see a sense of wounded > innocence. "Don't forget," one of them told me,"it is the CPM that > campaigned for redistribution of surplus land." What they do not want to > acknowledge — in the very specific present, of course — was that this > promise was never fulfilled. Indeed, the so-called 'class agenda'of the > dominant left was more or less treated as over in the early 1970s;the left's > achievements after this did not touch upon redistribution of productive > resources to the agricultural working classes. Indeed, we have seen the > expansion of mass welfare — mass housing, fixing minimum wages, making > available welfare pensions through welfare funds for unorganised sector > workers, and so on.We have also seen the welfare system's indirect > acknowledgement of the rise of the consumer-citizen in Kerala — for > instance, in the state-run Maveli stores. > > The early 1990s saw the first moves towards 'engaged citizenship'a la > Robert Putnam, the first glimmerings of 'state-centric civil society' in the > mass literacy campaigns when the 'people's science movement', the Kerala > Sastra Sahitya Parishat, mobilsed a large number of volunteer-teachers.The > People's Planning Campaign of the mid-1990s was the culmination of this > gradual shift towards Kerala's own version of the 'Third Way', which however > pretended — or hoped and prayed — that the question of the redistribution of > productive land to landless dalit people was buried and forgotten.The PPC > introduced the liberal promise by which the poor were to be integrated into > the market as small entreprenuers with plenty of state support through the > new institutions of local self-government– in training, credit, subsidies, > infrastructure, and markets.This was to be matched with an expansion of > 'minimum entitlements' — especially housing and water supply. > > The trick didn't work. The demand for productive resources continued to be > raised from outside the domain of formal politics, from within oppositional > civil society, by adivasi and dalit people — and not as a 'class issue'. > Since the new millenium, Kerala has seen powerful land struggles by adivasis > and dalits for land, and indeed, the CPM had to deal with this reality.The > CPM's strategy against the Adivasi Gotra Sabha, for instance, has been to > acknowledge the demand minimally, and then see it to it that only tribal > people who support the CPM gain the minimal access to land.Similarly, when > widows' associations began to form outside the political parties, the CPM > created its own organisation for widows — who are indeed a sizeable number > in Kerala — and again, the demands were significantly reduced, minimised. > The CPM makes sure that the tribals and widows do not ever grow out of their > status as governmental categories into full-fledged, vocal interest > groups.Chengara, however, presents a tougher task.The CPM does not want > another Nandigram, whatever the Pathanamthitta District Secretary may > claim.How the CPM tackles this issue is worth watching, though — they have > opened the gambit by talking again of redistributing surplus land. > I, however, call the present round of statements by leading CPM leaders > 'noise' because there are too many notes and tones clashing, in fact nothing > can be heard at all. On the one hand, there is the the desperate > reaffirmation of the promise to redistribute surplus land — is clearly an > effort to reclaim it as a 'class issue' and hence legitimately owned by the > CPM. On the other hand, there are statements which seem to say that the > class issue is after all a caste issue and vice-versa and in any case, 'poor > people' are at the centre.There is another set of statements which mix up > the demand for land by the protestors from Chengara with the debate around > the desirability of'second [round]land reforms'–as if the first was ever > completed.Here no one is sure whether the 'second land reforms' is > pro-Chengara land struggle or anti-land mafia, or both.Or whether the demand > for productive land is the same as the presently available sure-fire > medicine for poverty alleviation, the minimum entitlement, or whether > productive land should be made into the new minimum entitlement. > > A regular political babel, is all I can say, with everyone from Ambedkar to > Amartya Sen dragged in. As old-timers say in Malayalam, 'all the world and > all of change is Maaya'! True for the present in Kerala, at least. > > Posted in Government <http://wordpress.com/tag/government/>, > Identities<http://wordpress.com/tag/identities/>, > Left watch <http://wordpress.com/tag/left-watch/>, > Politics<http://wordpress.com/tag/politics/>, > Violence/Conflict <http://wordpress.com/tag/violenceconflict/> | Tags: > Chengara <http://wordpress.com/tag/chengara/>, > CPM<http://wordpress.com/tag/cpm/>, > land reforms <http://wordpress.com/tag/land-reforms/>, surplus > land<http://wordpress.com/tag/surplus-land/> > > > > -- Dileep R I thuravoor --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
