PARTY....THE LEADING FACTOR

The development of the party structures grew with the development of the movement. In North Telangana the movement was first built by Central Organisers in the 1+2 system i.e., one CO with two squad members. By 1985 all centres had adopted this system. But with the first round of suppression between 1987 and 89 these developed into squads having 5 to 7 members. At present the squads have 9 to 11 members. In DK, the forest squads started with 5 members, now they have 11 members. Now steps are being taken to form platoon size squads - where in one squad area (50 to 60 villages) there will be a CGS (Central Guerilla Squad) under which will function two to three LGS (Local Guerilla Squads) of roughly seven members each. Each of these LGS will be given responsibility for 20 villages.

In the beginning the squads comprised of chiefly party members. But as the squads grew, non-party members also entered. Since 1992 in each squad there is a Squad Area Committee (SAC) of three members which is now the chief party unit within the squad-responsible for the political and organisational tasks in their areas of operation. Each SAC member would have a responsibility of roughly 20 villages. Village party cells began to develop since 1983, but the bulk of them were smashed during the first suppression campaign in 1985-87. Since then, they have been steadily growing and today, a wide network of village party cells exist under each SAC. With these party cells have also grown the village defence squads-both function under directions from the SAC.

First the entire movement was under the AP PC (which functioned under the CC). Under the APPC was the North Telangana regional committee and in 1982 a Forest Liaison Committee (FLC) was setup to guide the DK movement. In March 1987 the first Forest Party Conference was held and a forest committee with 5 members elected. By 1990, with the growth of the movement, this was expanded to seven members with a three member secretariat.

Now with the growth of the movement there are three independent committees (of status of state committees) functioning directly under the Central Committee. These are :

(i) The AP State Committee under which function three regional committees - Coastal-Rayalaseema Joint Regional Committee, South Telangana Regional Committee and East Zone Regional Committee.

(ii) Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee- under which function the four divisional committees of Gadchiroli, Bhandara/Balaghat, South Bastar and North Bastar.

(iii) North Telangana Special Zonal Committee - under this are the district committees of Karimnagar, Adilabad, Nizamabad, Warangal, NTFD (North Telangana Forest Division comprising the adjoining forest areas of Karimnagar, Warangal, Khammam) and the Singareni Belt Committee.

The party centre has concentrated in raising the political and military level of the organisation. For each level of party leadership, political courses and classes are held. Military training camps are also held at various levels - for village militants, for squad members and also, a central training camp. Each state committee brings out its own political organ which propagates the line set by the Central Committee and also takes up the problems of its area.

With this the overall military and political level of the party has grown.

Militarily, it can be seen in the growing number of successful actions....the number of raids on the police in 1996 was eleven and the number of rifles snatched between March 1996 and November 1996 was 130.

Politically, this growth can be seen by the preparations and successful conclusion of the party’s All India Special Conference held in November 1995.

A full quarter century after the holding of the 8th Congress - the founding Congress - of the CPI (ML), the All India Special Conference of the Party was held in November 1995. Though it was a conference, it had the stature of a Congress as it adopted the four basic documents of the party : (i) the Party Programme and Constitution, (ii) Strategy and Tactics, (iii) Political Resolution and (iv) the Political and Organisational Review.

Earlier, these four draft documents had been thoroughly discussed throughout the party and passed (with amendments, if necessary) at the various regional and state conferences before being presented before the All India Conference for adoption. These state conferences had also reviewed the work in their own respective states and had taken decisions on rectification and development of the movements in the states of Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Also the units of West Bengal and Haryana set out tasks for building the revolutionary movements in their states. Besides the four major documents, a special resolution adopting the self-critical review of 1980 was passed. Also in a detailed discussion, delegates expressed their opinion on another document : "The Indian Revolutionary War - Guerilla Zones" and authorised the CC to finalise it.

The Conference was attended by 41 delegates (including three women delegates) from AP, North Telangana, Dandakaranya, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Haryana and a few other regions and a fraternal delegate from the COC CPI (ML) Party Unity. The Conference was held deep in the forests, guarded by armed guerillas and went on for about 20 days. After detailed discussions the draft documents were adopted with some amendments. The Conference also approved the financial report. In the process of election of a new Central Committee, the out-going COC members first put forward their individual self-criticisms, on which delegates made their comments....then a new CC was elected. The Conference finally adopted seven special resolutions : (i) On expulsions, (ii) Hailing the National liberation struggles and workers’ struggles throughout the world, (iii) Condemning imperialist propaganda against Marxism-Leninism-Mao Ze Dong Thought (iv) Hailing the revolutionary struggles of other countries (v) Supporting the Nationality struggles in India (vi) Demanding Com. Gonzalo’s release and (vii) Calling for united struggle against Indian expansionism.

This Conference was the true successor to the 1970 founding Congress of the CPI (ML) as it upheld the spirit of Naxalbari and reaffirmed the basic political positions taken at the Eighth Congress. The Programme and Constitution passed in 1970 was updated and refined at this Conference, the Tactical Line (now called Strategy and Tactics) adopted in 1980 was further refined with the experience of the past fifteen years which was summed up in the Political and Organisational Review. The Political Resolution analysed the present national and international conditions taking cognizance of the important political and economic changes that have occurred in the last decade.

This Conference gave a new hope to the revolutionaries of the country; a hope that the three magic weapons needed for the success of the Indian revolution - an all India Party, a Peoples’ Army and a Revolutionary United Front - would soon become a reality.

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