SUCI: a mix of Marxism and Mamata

“SUCI was a true revolutionary party and by forging an alliance with the Trinamool Congress, you have deviated from that,” Chatterjee had written.

On Thursday, the party had expelled Chatterjee after accusing him of flouting party discipline.

Panchayat polls in West Bengal are scheduled to be held on May 11, May 14 and May 18.

SUCI, a party that believes in Marxism-Leninism, was set up in 1948 by Shibdas Ghosh, a leader of the Revolutionary Socialist Party. It has always claimed to be the only communist party founded on Indian soil and the only one true to Marxist Leninist ideals and sees the CPI and the CPI(M) as having deviated.

Many of its members live in communes, but the party does not disclose its membership details. Unlike the other communist parties, its cadres hit the roads to raise funds for party activities.

The party has strong units in South 24 Parganas district. It has the envious record of winning the Joynagar and Kultoli assembly seats without a break from the first general election in 1952. In fact, these are the only two seats that SUCI has held in the Assembly all these years.

When Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee set up the Progressive Democratic Secular Front of 16 small political parties in January this year, she declared that it was an alternative Front to the ruling Left Front which also has small parties like Marxist Forward Bloc and Socialist Party.

She also declared that the Front would have a common minimum programme and would fight all the coming elections together.

Mamata also invited all Left parties, including partners of the Left Front, to join that Front with a view to mounting a combined fight against the CPI(M).

Later, on March 7, the Trinamool Congress and the SUCI declared that they would have an alliance for the panchayat elections in order to fight the CPI(M) together. “The CPI(M) has become a fascist force and our common aim will be to defeat them,”’ Ghosh said.

While the TMC hoped to ride piggyback in SUCI pockets in South 24 Parganas and elsewhere, the SUCI wants to take advantage of Mamata’s immense popularity among the masses.

“Many people asked me why I accepted SUCI and I told them it was the need of the hour that we came together. In order to defeat the CPI(M), I am ready to accept all other Leftist parties than the CPI(M),” Mamata said. “Our party will take their help where they have strong organisations.”

The SUCI has spurned the CPI(M)’s overtures to join it, since it believes that the CPI(M) has deviated from the path of Marxism. SUCI is quick to organise protests against price increases, bus fares and power tariffs.

Its biggest achievement has been to get the CPI(M) to restore English teaching at the primary school level in 1998, 19 years after the Left Front government decided to remove the subject.