Ongoing ninth congress of the CPI (Ml) in the State capital is congregation of the national and international left wing and socialists’ delegates. While they have myriad takes on the condition of the socialist movements across the globe the foreign delegates stand united at two issues, at least.
One, they don’t subscribe to the left wing extremism and suggest the left wing extremists from across the world and Jharkhand should shun the violence as soon as possible. Second, they agree that the socialist ideology is under attack at various fronts.
General Secretary of Nepal’s Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-leninist), CPI-UMl, Ishwar Pokhrel said that Jharkhand had been one of the many states in India severely hit by left wing extremism.
“But the agenda of development cannot be carried forward by extremism. This will only assuage the socialist movement in the State. The policies violence cannot pay in long run and they would have to return to main stream politics like we did in Nepal. The sooner the return the better otherwise all the violence inflicted through extremism will keep on haunting,” he said.
He further said that the socialist ideology was already under attack at various fronts. “Internally it is attacked by the extremists and externally it is attacked by rightist extremism. I don’t think, however that the socialist ideology will die. It will survive with the honest people coming forward and subscribing to it,” he said.
On the issue of various factions within the left wing parties he said that the factions within the left parties had been the results of the opportunism. “They say, they are the votary of same school of thought but they are divided for their personal benefits,” he said.
Sue Bolton of Australia’ left wing organisation, Socialist Alliance agreed that Socialist Movement was under attack from inside with internal extremism and also external rightist schools of thoughts.
But she felt that the left movement was very important in organising workers, unemployed people to fight for their rights across the globe. “And such united fights may go along way in increasing in size and activities. With world’s economy dwindling and austerity measures coming in place the socialist movement is coming back because it is organising people in country like Greece and Spain for instance, to fight for their rights,” she said.
On the issue of extremism in Jharkhand she said, “I can’t comment much about the left movement in Jharkhand. But I don’t subscribe to the strategies of violence being adopted by the left wing extremists any where.”