Leftovers again

The CPM knows that theoretically,it could turn things to its favour,both in terms of position and manoeuvre — this party congress is the first since the global financial crisis that undercut capitalist certainties,there is growing popular anger around inequality. In India,both national parties appear vulnerable,and there is clear room to grow. But if this party congress is any indication,the CPM is more comfortable assessing the comparative merits of China and Latin America than the specifics of why it has been left behind almost everywhere in India,why it is invisible in most of the north,why it lost even West Bengal and Kerala,why it has failed to persuade what it considers its core constituency of agricultural and industrial workers. While the CPM’s new resolutions name-check many current events and debates,it has not changed its mind one bit. It makes only a vague,pro forma mention of unorganised workers,of the “youth and the unemployed”. Though it reluctantly concedes that it will engage with caste,it views identity politics mainly as an annoyance that splits class solidarity. Regional parties mainly represent the bourgeoisie and the rural rich. Movements in Telangana and Darjeeling merely “disrupt the linguistic organisation of the Indian state and the unity of the exploited class”. The Arab Spring,one of the most complex ongoing events of our time,has also been speedily simplified and assimilated into the CPM worldview. Anna Hazare is merely another opportunity to expound on crony capitalism and corruption. Issues as diverse as cybercrime and honour killings are reduced to one or the other facet of neoliberalism. It speaks of nuclear energy and its perils only to shoehorn in its theories about US imperialism.

These resolutions only prove how the CPM’s reliance on its dusty manuals keeps it from detecting decisive political and economic shifts. Unable to make itself a genuine progressive alternative,it is stuck chasing its own tail.