Political-Organizational Report Adopted at the Party Congress

From Liberation, Vol. III, Nos. 7-9 (May-July 1970).

Our Congress is taking place at a time when US imperialism is continuing open and naked aggression on Cambodia and expanding the war of aggression throughout Indo-China with the sheer logic of an aggressor, reminding us of the days of Munich. This attack can easily be termed as the beginning of the Third World War as the march of the Hitlerite hordes on Sudetanland was the beginning of the Second World War. But the world situation today cannot be understood only in the light of the aggression and aggressive designs of US imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism for, unlike Munich, a new thing has emerged under the leadership of the great CPC and China. The three Indo-Chinese peoples have united and presented a united front against the US aggressors. This marks a great victory of the Indo-Chinese peoples and serves as the key to the understanding of the present world situation. Our struggle against imperialist warmongers must take note of this new danger of aggression and the great victory of the Indo-Chinese people.

In our country also the Indian Government under the cover of national defence are feverishly preparing for an aggressive war to serve the needs to the global strategy of US imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism. Soviet and US specialists are actually controlling the entire defence organization of our country and this pressure of war efforts is breaking down the entire economy and throwing the country into an abyss of permanent and severe economic crisis. But in the Indian situation also a new thing has emerged which marks the victory of the people; it is the peasants’ armed struggle under the leadership of the CPI(M-L). Within a year this struggle has spread far and wide — from Assam to Kashmir — and has engulfed more than 12 States of India and has already become a motive force of history. The puppet character of the present regime and the hollowness of the parliamentary system are becoming clear to the entire people and the bitter class struggles are shattering the myth of Gandhism and the “peaceful professions” of the present regime. The bitter class struggles have exposed the butcher nature of the present reactionary government; the necessity of the battle of annihilation against these butchers is felt by vast masses of the people and the struggle is spreading to rural areas with tremendous vigour.

The emergence of our Party — CPI(M-L) — is the victory of the revolutionary people of India and also the victory of the all-powerful Thought of Chairman Mao on the soil of India. Equipped with the great Mao Tsetung Thought, this revolutionary peasants’ armed struggle has already become an invincible force which imperialists, social-imperialists and native reaction cannot suppress. That this onward march of the armed revolutionary struggle of the peasantry will continue unabated and that the struggle will spread to all the states of India is not only the truth of history but has already become the reality of history.

In order to achieve victory we must pay attention to the building of our Party — CPI(M-L). This task is the most important, most immediate and most sacred task of the revolutionary people of India. We must build up our Party among the landless and poor peasants and on this alone the revolutionary striking power of the Party and the revolutionary people depends. The working class and petty-bourgeois cadres must integrate themselves with the landless and poor peasants and this task of integration cannot be over-emphasized. The history of our inner-party struggles since the 20th Congress of the CPSU shows that the right-wing revisionist line was defeatd by the left-wing revolutionary cadres again and again but the victory of the left forces could not be consolidated, thanks to the subtle manoeuvres of the centrist elements. Thus, the history of our inner-party struggles shows that centrism is the vilest weapon of the revisionists and we must fight all signs of centrism. Centrism undermines the revolutionary politics and makes the fighter defenceless.

With the peal of the spring thunder of the Naxalbari struggle came a turning-point in the history of the Indian revolution. When revisionism seemed triumphant and the whole of India was steeped in darkness, Comrade Charu Majumdar, who organized and led the Naxalbari struggle, analysed correctly the character of the Indian society and state and the great role of the peasantry in India’s democratic revolution, upheld Chairman Mao’s great teaching : “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun” and applied Mao Tsetung Thought to the concrete conditions of India for the first time in this country’s history. The Naxalbari struggle led by Comrade Charu Majumdar marked the beginning of the rout of revisionism in India — the beginning of the victorious onward march of Mao Tsetung Thought on the soil of India. The leadership provided by him since then has kindled the flames of armed peasant guerrilla struggle in Srikakulam and Andhra and spread those flames to eleven other states of India.

The battle between the two lines was fought bitterly in the Co-ordination period on issues like ‘Boycott Elections’, characterization of Soviet revisionism as social-imperialism and the fight against economism. The bitter fight over these issues, led by Comrade Charu Majumdar, strengthened and consolidated the revolutionary ranks and this resulted in the expansion of struggle to new areas like Mushahari and Lakhimpur Kheri. Another major struggle inside Co-ordination was fought and won on the question of the formation of the Party. The intellectuals’ resistance to democratic centralism, the metaphysical understanding of a ‘pure’ party, the worship of spontaneity as reflected in ideas like “building the party through armed struggles and from below” were among the many expressions of the wrong line which were defeated, and the Party was formed marking the victory of Chairman Mao’s line on Party-building.

After the formation of the Party, which consolidated the victory of the revolutionary line over the revisionist line, the struggle between the two lines entered a new stage. The revisionist line sought mainly to undermine the authority of the Party, encouraging polycentrism inside the Party, to attack the correct political line of the Party in the name of mass organizations and mass movements for economic demands as prerequisites for the development of guerrilla struggles, to encourage big and spectacular actions for the development of peasants’ armed struggles and to rely upon petty-bourgeois intellectuals for the development of peasants’ armed struggles. The successful battle against this wrong line has spread the struggle from one state to another and the Peasants’ armed struggles are rousing the working class and the petty-bourgeois intellectuals, and thus a new stage is opening when the Peasants’ armed struggles will create waves of mass uprising engulfing the vast land of ours in a conflagration and the Party will be required to lead this revolutionary upsurge to a nation-wide victory of revolution.

Though we are a small Party now, we can fulfil this sacred task if we raise our study and application of Chairman Mao’s Thought as embodied in the ‘Quotations’ and the ‘Three Articles’ to a new height, entrench ourselves deeply among landless and poor peasants and integrate ourselves with them, promote the landless and poor peasant cadres to higher responsibility, study and concretely apply the correct thesis of Vice-Chairman Lin Piao’s : “Guerrilla warfare is the only way to mobilize and apply the whole strength of the people against the enemy”, realize and apply methodically the correct thesis that the annihilation of the class enemy is the higher form of class struggle and the beginning of guerrilla war and People’s War and realize that the class struggle, i.e., this battle of annihilation, can solve all the problems facing us and lead the struggle to a higher plane, raise the political consciousness of the people to a higher stage, create conditions for the emergence of a new type of man, the man of the Mao Tsetung era who fears neither hardship nor death, develop the People’s Army and can thus ensure the formation of a permanent base area. Thus this battle of annihilation liberates the people not only from the oppression of the landlord class and its state but also liberates them from the shackles of backward ideas and removes from the minds of the people poisonous weeds of self-interest, clan interest, localism, casteism, religious superstitions, etc. Thus this battle of annihilation can bring the East Wind of splendour and glory of Man.

The politics of seizure of political power can alone rouse bitter class hatred among landless and poor peasants and only by putting this politics in command the battle of annihilation can be raised to a new height.

The revisionists all the world over are trying to unite the groups who are parading the name of Chairman Mao and fighting Mao Tsetung Thought in the name of Mao Tsetung by seeking to arrest and denounce this battle of annihilation. So any idea of unity with these groups means the liquidation of the main plank of our struggle and submerging the entire party in the morass of revisionism.

Our comrades must keep in mind that entirely through our own efforts we have been able to create a new situation in India when the ruling classes and their parties are openly quarrelling with one another in a downright dog-bite-dog manner, when stable governments have become a thing of the past and when vast masses of people are coming into the arena of struggle and creating a new and better situation for the revolutionaries to carry on their struggles. Our Party’s call “China’s Chairman is our Chairman, China’s path is our path”, our call against any aggressive war against China and our call to turn the 1970’s into the decade of liberation have gripped the imagination of the masses, particularly of the revolutionary youth, and won a victory over national chauvinism and revisionism and have opened up a new era of greater victories. Our battle of annihilation has linked together our two sacred tasks — the task of liberating our country and the people and the internationalist task of ending imperialism and imperialist war — and has created the material basis, that is, the emergence of the new man, for fulfilling these great tasks.

So, our Party should continue this battle of annihilation in a more determined and concerted way, create newer and newer areas of operation, depend upon unsophisticated arms which alone can release the initiative of the landless and poor peasants and develop the struggles in mighty waves, continue the political campaign in a purposeful way to develop this battle of annihilation, try continuously to draw in fresh forces from among the landless and poor peasants and know how to rely upon them, concentrate on one area, one unit, one squad basis, direct their entire work to fulfil the main task of the period, try constantly to improve the political level of the fighters and to bring them closer to the masses of the people, help the fighters study ‘Quotations’ and the ‘Three Articles’, link the fighters with the work of production and draw them inside the Party.

Comrades! imperialists, social-imperialists and native reaction are hatching plans to launch the fiercest attacks upon us when preservation of our main force and our leadership will depend upon how deeply we dig in among the people. So the method of work evolved by Chairman Mao should be studied and applied methodically and conscientiously by our leaders and cadres, because that alone can ensure the preservation and victory of our revolutionary struggles.

The world is progressing at a breath-taking speed towards the final emancipation of Man under the leadership of Chairman Mao : our struggle in India, too, is developing at an inconceivably fast speed. The victory of the Indian Revolution will certainly banish for ever imperialism and imperialist war from the face of the world. Our comrades must always feel this great responsibility that is on us, must develop the internationalist spirit of becoming one with the fighters of the world under the leadership of Chairman Mao. This feeling will give them immeasurable strength to carry on this great responsibility history has placed on us.

Let this Congress usher in greater unity among the revolutionary cadres and greater victory for the great Indian people. Let this Congress give new strength to the cadres to end the age-old sufferings of the Indian people, rouse our cadres and the people for greater sacrifice to change this India of darkness into an India of brightness and brilliance. Chairman Mao is there, victory is ours.

Long live the Indian Revolution !

Long live the CPI(M-L) !

Long live Chairman Mao! A long, long life to Chairman Mao !

(May 11, 1970)

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