For Left Consolidation: A Note on the Crisis and Tasks of the Left in the Present Situation | Bhanudeb Dutta & Sobhanlal Datta Gupta

Preliminary remarks :

It is undeniable that the Left in India is at present passing through a crisis which is unprecedented since independence. In contrast to the steady concentration of power in the hands of the Right, the rapid decline of the Left over the years is extremely alarming. This is especially manifest in the marginalization of the Left in Parliament and their exit from power in West Bengal and Tripura. Only in Kerala the Left is still in power, but it is plagued with many problems. The objective of this document is to highlight the nature of the crisis and suggest a rethinking on how to come out of the crisis.

This document is intended for the following categories and hence circulated to them only : (a) General Secretaries of all Left parties at the centre and secretaries of the same in West Bengal. (b) Select Left intellectuals. (c) Select Left leaders of the past. The purpose of this document is to engage them in a fruitful discussion and mobilise their political wisdom as a way out of this impasse.

Nature of the Crisis faced by the Left

Rejection of the Left or looking for an alternative Left ? Our national and international experience are increasingly indicating that the mindset of the Left which was shaped in the Soviet era demands a major change. Internationally, the leading communist parties of the West, i.e. French and Italian Communist Parties are no longer visible in their original form. In India, it is evident after the 18th Lok Sabha election (2024), that the Left has gained primarily in those states where it had alliance with INDIA group partners. Does it mean that people are not ready to vote for the Left as an independent political force but only as the partner of a grand alliance ? In other words, does it indicate that people are not prepared to accept the Left in its present form but in a different form altogether ?

While all major parties of the INDIA alliance have gained politically (Samajvadi Party, DMK, Congress, TMC, RJD etc), the Left’s performance has been dismal. In fact, the biggest gain has been made by the Congress and its extremely intolerant attitude towards the communist parties on the question of seat allocation definitely weakened the Left’s position. This happened because of the Left’s inability to project itself as an independent and united force on all-India plane. This, however, does not mean that in electoral politics we should shun our relation with the Congress. Against the ruling right reactionary and fascist party, namely, the BJP, electoral alliance with the Congress, despite its class character, is necessary and efforts should be made to involve them in the struggle on different issues but not at the cost of the Left.

This leads to a very crucial question. What will be the core of the anti-Right coalition ? The Left or non-Left bourgeois parties, especially the Congress ? It has to be recognized that the non-Left bourgeois parties, national or regional, cannot really fight the RSS and BJP, because of their poor organizational and ideological strength. All of them have a weakness for soft Hindutva and are ultimately not at all reliable forces who can fight the Right. Here the role of the Left becomes crucial, because the Left alone can fight the Right organizationally as well as ideologically. Therefore, it is the Left which has to emerge as the core of the anti-Right coalition.

But if the Left has to emerge as the core then the most important condition is the consolidation of all Left parties under a Common Minimum Programme (CMP). It has become a routine matter to talk of CPI-CPI(M)-CPI(M-L) unity. But this is a very complex and time-consuming matter which cannot be settled very easily. So what is necessary is Left consolidation through a coordinating mechanism on the basis of a CMP.Ordinary people are disillusioned and disturbed to find so many Left parties functioning in the political field, all claiming to be the champion of preserving the interest of the ordinary people. They do not understand the pulse of the people who want to see a united Left consolidation. Every effort should be made towards this end. In any field whatsoever, even in the field of electoral politics, the Left parties should act as a Left bloc. It is not enough to form Left coordination, because the need of the hour is Left consolidation.

An extremely disturbing problem for the Left is that mobilization of the poor is slipping out of their fold. How can the poorest sections of society, the tribals, the dalits and the depressed classes be brought back to the fold of the Left is one of the major challenges now faced by them. It is becoming evident that it is no longer class politics but identity politics and dole politics which are appealing to them.

Since the Left today has to operate within the framework of electoral politics, it has to give priority to organizational issues, the main focus of which is on the politics of alliances with parties with which they have hardly any ideological affinity. The Left’s partners in the INDIA group or its alliance with parties in a number of states constitutes such examples. This compromise the Left is forced to accept under electoral compulsion. The problem becomes more complicated for the Left when there is sudden migration of a party from one camp to another. In states where the Left has been in power the problem assumes a more complex dimension which has become a new challenge. This has been especially evident in the cases of West Bengal and Kerala. In order to maintain its organizational hold at different levels and confront its political rivals the Left has accommodated in the past all sorts of opportunist and lumpen elements, which give them organizational leverage but become local power centres within the party and breeding grounds of corruption. As soon as there is a change of government, it is these elements which immediately move to the new camp, severely tarnishing the image of the Left. This is exactly what has happened in West Bengal after the TMC came to power in 2011. In Kerala charges of corruption and criminalization within the Left establishment more or less tell the same story. In many cases these compromises for the sake of organizational expansion ultimately have an extremely adverse impact on the Left, because as a result of this strategy it is ideology which now becomes secondary, degrading and eroding the quality and morale of the cadres, if not even the leadership.

In the Soviet era, when international communist movement, with all its pitfalls, was a global force, the Left could project before the masses an alternative of capitalism and set an agenda and a goal. In today’s world, that possibility is no longer there with the result that it is the Right which is virtually setting the agenda which the Left has to accept as a challenge. Unless the Left is in a position to set an alternative agenda in terms of the present as well as the future, which will attract the masses in the form of a blueprint, it will be a problem for the Left to advance. This is precisely what the BJP and RSS have systematically done by projecting the vision of an alternative India, which has caught the imagination of a large section of the masses, and it is this strategy which has given them political dividends.
Evaluation of the class character of the regional parties by the different state units is essential towards forming an objective understanding of the concerned region, which helps the Left parties not only in electoral politics but also in the field of mass struggle. The Left has to explore how the regional parties have struck deep roots in the masses and have emerged as voices reflective of regional aspirations. Every effort needs to be made by the Left parties to effect a tie-up with those regional parties who share common grounds with the Left.

Tasks ahead :

Theoretical :

Many ideas of the Soviet era Marxism have to be seriously reconsidered. Lenin’s understanding of this question can be an excellent guide in this matter. In 1922, at the Fourth Congress of Comintern, Lenin gave the warning that in 1921, at the Third Congress of Comintern a resolution had been adopted which was wrong and which required revision. In that resolution the Russian model had been virtually universalized, which was not correct, because the Russian model was not necessarily appropriate for other countries and each country should develop its own understanding of revolution in its own way (V.I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 33, pp. 430-432). In 1964, when the Togliatti Memorandum was published by the Italian Communist Party after his death almost a similar concern was voiced by him and he even criticized some of the formulations of the 1960 Moscow Declaration of the Communist Countries where the Soviet model of socialism had been eulogized.

At least three such issues demand serious rethinking.

One : While accepting in principle the concept of democratic centralism, the problem that remains unaddressed is : the minority voices do not reach out to the bottom level of the Party and what gets lost is the spirit of democracy. The party members get the false impression that all decisions at the higher level have been taken unanimously and that there is no disagreement anywhere at any level.

Two : The concept of vanguard party demands rethinking. In today’s world as the struggles of the working masses are becoming increasingly multidimensional, involving gender, caste and community in the case of India, class identity is becoming secondary in many cases. Communist parties are thus becoming partners in a broader alliance but not as a vanguard. In many cases struggles are becoming issue-based and spontaneous, being launched under the banner of civil society organizations and not any party. In West Bengal, for instance, the unprecedented mass upsurge centring around the RG Kar episode, is indicative of the fact that the movement is unfolding not under the banner of any Left party but the slogans they are using, the songs they are playing all belong to the heritage of the Left. Yet they are not prepared to accept the leadership of any party, including the Left. But here a problem arises. As historical experience tells us, these spontaneous uprisings (i.e. Occupy Wall Street, Arab Spring, Shahbag protest movement) ultimately fizzle out, if there is no political-organizational –ideological leadership. So, how to resolve this contradiction ---- this is a new challenge before the Left. These social movements should not be left outside our purview but they should be closely watched. Should such movements fail or fall in the midway, the Left has to carry it forward with a conscious leadership.

Three : The present situation demands a serious rethinking of our understanding of the Marxian legacy. Many of these questions involving what went wrong with socialism were addressed by quite a few top-ranking leaders belonging to the Marxist tradition. But Marxism of the Soviet era paid hardly any attention to these alternative currents. Similarly our standard understanding of Marx-Engels and Lenin, focusing on some of their selected texts, has given rise to a mechanical understanding of Marxism, which does not appeal to today’s generation. To be more exact, we have to revise our mind set of the Soviet era and seriously address the question with an open mind : what went wrong with Soviet socialism ? It is high time to admit that the Soviet model was an example of party-oriented socialism, which was a betrayal of the real meaning of socialism, as espoused by Marx, Engels and Lenin. Failure to understand this made the Communist Parties blissfully unaware of the importance of democracy, pluralism and humanism and alienated them from the masses. This sense of critical awareness must emerge from within the central leadership of the communist parties.

Practical :

(i) In a country like India if the communist parties have to make themselves acceptable to the masses, then issues like religion and morality need to be addressed in the proper perspective. The hallmark of a good communist is modesty and in their personal life they need to be guided by norms and standards of communist morality. Only then we can win over the masses not by dominance but by intellectual and moral authority. These questions have either not been given importance in the mainstream discussion of the communist parties or discussion of these issues has simply been opposed on the ground that they go against the materialist philosophy of Marxism and promote idealism. It is to be kept in mind that after the fall of the Soviet Union in many communist parties of the Middle East and North Africa questions were raised on how to integrate Marxism with the positive elements in Islam.

(ii) The communist parties have paid very little attention to the question of tradition. The way BJP and RSS are hijacking and distorting some of the leading figures of the Indian tradition, namely, Gandhi, Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Subhas Chandra, Tagore and many others and presenting them as symbols of Hindutva is a major challenge for the Left. To combat this challenge issues of tradition,history and culture need to be addressed in an altogether new perspective. In India Marxism cannot appeal to the working masses unless it integrates Marxism with the positive elements in our tradition, while critiquing the conservative elements. RSS is doing just the opposite, and thereby confusing and misleading the masses.

(iii) The Left is an uncompromising critic of Hindu fundamentalism. But it almost remains silent on Islamic fundamentalism, on what is happening in Iran or Afghanistan. In the case of Iran, for instance, the Left keeps mum for the reason that it believes that Iran is anti-imperialist. This is a totally wrong understanding, because Iran opposes US imperialism from a nationalist viewpoint and not from the position of anti-imperialism. Being anti-Western does not necessarily mean that the country is anti-imperialist, because it has nothing to do with anti-imperialism in the Leninist sense. As a result, the brutal suppression of the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people is being severely underplayed. A similar case is Putin. Putin’s anti-Americanism has no ideological basis, because it has to be kept in mind that he is opposed to Biden but a close friend of Trump.

(iv) If the Left has to make itself acceptable to the masses, it has to critique all kinds of authoritarianism across the world, including regimes which the Left normally tries to defend. This includes China and North Korea. The way the communist leaders in these countries either extend their stay in power arbitrarily or promote dynastic rule is a complete betrayal of the core ideals of socialism and democracy. These are uncomfortable questions. But the Left has to take an independent stand on these issues. Otherwise the credibility of the Left will be at stake, leading to its isolation and deepening of its crisis.
(v) It is true that we launch many programmes but we fail to convert them into a movement. We are only programme-makers and not movement-builders. We fail to understand the difference between the writing of a programme and its actual implementation through movement.

(VI) It is high time that the Left should seriously take up the question of culture, especially because party comrades are seemingly averse to culture. Two questions become very important in this context : (a) why should the communists be concerned with culture ? (b) why should the cultural activists be concerned with Marxism and socialism ? If these two questions are not properly dealt with, the interconnection between politics and culture can never be understood in proper perspective. If the two are considered separate and unrelated, the democratic space in society will be taken over by the fascist forces. To prevent this happening the tie-up between politics and culture can work as a protective wall between the people and their fascist and other reactionary adversaries.

Conclusion :

The Left has to strive for replacement of its disintegrated image by a new look in the form of Left consolidation and present itself as a unified Left to the people.

The Left has to present itself before the public as a dedicated force with new ideas marked by a higher form of ethics and morality.