Come December, CPM to hold its first plenum since 1978

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But the call for a plenum after 37 years is telling, said CPM leaders. “We don’t know if we simply have the required strength to be present at each and every booth. Our mass base has eroded and there are problems within the party. The existing leadership is ageing and there aren’t enough young leaders coming through,” said a CPM leader.

The party plenum — an assembly of CPM members — was last held in 1978 in Salkia, where the focus was on expansion. While announcing the December plenum in Ganashakti, senior CPM leader Biman Bose urged workers to change the party into one of “active membership”. He has also noted that currently, many party members are functioning in a “semi active” or “inactive” manner. “If we are not able to change this… then a movement is not possible,” he had written in the article titled “For the members of the Communist Party”.

Bose has gone on to enlist a number of dos and don’ts. The primary focus of the article is to ensure that “only the ill and the aged” are exempt from active membership, while reiterating that “break of discipline” or “anti-party activities will not be tolerated”. Bose also notes that CPM must ensure that punishment against party’s measures go hand-in-hand with “corrective measures” such as “appeal” as per article 19, sub clause 13 of the CPM manifesto.

A senior CPM leader said, “In the past, the party had become larger than individual members. To put it another way, individual differences weren’t tolerated and as a result, there was no scope for self-criticism. Any self-criticism was viewed as essentially anti-party and we became almost exactly like the forces we oppose — intolerant and inflexible. This must change.”

The issue of “self-criticism” was also brought up state committee member Mridul Dey in Ganashakti. He had written: In the 1978 plenum, special directions were issued for the expansion of the party.”

He added that through a process of “self-criticism”, not enough “independent growth” has taken place within the party.