RYA’s First National Conference
The new but rapidly growing centre for the country’s revolutionary youth, Revolutionary Youth Association (RYA), held its first national conference in Calcutta on 18-20 August.
On the first day a mass rally was brought out through the historic city of Calcutta that had once witnessed a massive youth unrest during the days of the Naxalbari movement. Unfazed by the scorching heat, the enthusiastic rallyists gathered around the Shahid Minar, a historic rendezvous of revolutionaries. Fondly remembering their cherished martyred leader Com.Chandrashekhar, the rallyists raised slogans like ‘Chandrashekhar tere armanon ko, hum manzil tak pahunchayenge!’ (Chandrashekar, we shall fulfill your dreams). After garlanding the potrait of Com.Saroj Datta, the gathering observed a minutes silence in memory of martyrs. A demand was also made from the rally to the Left Front government to establish a Saroj Datta Memorial and constitute a commission to enquire into the killing of Com.Datta. Later the rallyists marched in a procession through the central area of the city. Addressing the rallyists, Dipankar Bhattacharya, PBM of CPI(ML), said that this freedom that the country had got was a sham for this freedom only belonged to the corrupt politicians, criminals and the lackeys of the imperialist forces and not to the youth or the toiling masses. Among others who addressed the gathering were Shankar, President, AISA, Kartik Pal, PBM of CPI(ML), Raja Ram Singh, President, RYA and Lal Bahadur Singh, General Secretary, RYA.
The next day’s proceedings began with revolutionary songs presented by cultural teams. The venue was Yuva Bharati Krirangan, renamed as Com.Chandrashekhar Hall, Com.Saroj Datta Nagar. Vinod Mishra, General Secretary, CPI(ML) then inaugurated the conference.
In his speech, he congratulated the RYA for its sustained efforts to build up the organisation to its present strength within a short span of one and a half years of its existence.
Referring to the slogan given by RYA, that of patriotism, he recalled two foremost sources of inspiration for the youth who epitomised true patriotism — Bhagat Singh and Charu Majumdar. Bhagat Singh, he said, not only dreamt of freeing India but also raised the question of to whom this free India would belong. He called upon the youth to draw a lesson from this fearless revolutionary who was pregnant with revolutionary fervour and took to the gallows with a smile. Bhagat Singh who was constantly getting attracted towards communist ideology, reflected on many questions about society and the country and undertook a deep research. Infact, before being hanged he was studying Lenin’s State and Revolution and on reading it — that too without any help from outside — he had come to the conclusion that Marxism and not anarchism was the only effective tool in the struggle for India’s freedom and changing Indian society.
Charu Majumdar, Com.Mishra said, had dreamt of a socialist and a democratic India and this dream of his had fired the imagination of a whole generation of youth. Probably after independence Charu Majumdar was the only political leader who had given rise to a dream in the young hearts on such a large scale or who had inspired the youth for self-sacrifice. He had always told the youth that only those who integrated with the workers and peasants and participated in their struggles could remain a revolutionary to the end.
The slogan of social justice, which is the second slogan given by RYA, Com.Mishra said, had been raised right from the time of the bourgeois revolution, but this had remained the slogan for the reactionary forces. In the recent past in our country this slogan has been confined to a very narrow and sectarian context of accommodating the upwardly mobile forward sections of backward communities in the bureaucracy and state power. And the result was that the forces that emerged in the name of championing social justice with Laloo Yadav as its helm, have today deceived the same movement. He called upon the youth to take up this challenge to break this narrow and sectarian context of social justice and make the dalits, the oppressed and deprived sections stand in the political mainstream, make them the shapers of India’s destiny and bring them to an equal platform either social or political.
Recently, Com.Mishra said, Jyoti Basu visited the memorial at Kashipur Baranagar in Calcutta where many youths were killed in a massacre during the Naxalite movement. Among other things in his speech, Jyoti Basu mentioned that the then Congress government was responsible for the massacre. He directed Ashim Chatterjee to prepare a list of the victims and provide help to those affected families that were under hardship. But, Com.Mishra said that the main question was not that of providing assistance to the needy families but that of having a full fledged enquiry into the whole massacre, a demand that has been raised by us for the past 20 years. And this enquiry should be undertaken by an impartial commission and not by Ashim Chatterjee. And it was a fact of history that not only was the Congress involved in the massacre but CPI(M) leadership was also involved and Jyoti Basu was trying to skirt clear of this.
In the situation today, he said, there is a vacuum in the political space and in the progressive camp and the entire nation was searching for an alternate force for struggle. It is for us to steadfastly fill up this vacuum and in this context a revolutionary youth organisation had an important role to play. For in the struggle for a better future, he said, revolutionary youth play a leading role. This struggle of ours demands a lot of sacrifices and in the tradition of making self-sacrifices, youth have always been in the forefront. At the end, he expressed hope that in a couple of years RYA would become one of the main organisation of the youth in this country.
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“No joining hands with LF
in West Bengal...”
In a press conference during the youth conference, commenting on a remark made by Jyoti Basu recently that if the Naxalites joined them then the Left would be strengthened, Com.Mishra said we were with the CPI(M) in Bihar but in this context, he made it clear that for long we had been saying that the Left should come out of the alliance with Laloo government and only then we could join hands with them. Politics followed such a course that eventually CPI and CPI(M) had to part company with Laloo and they had to fall in line with our political line.
But in the context of West Bengal, Com.Mishra added that it was not possible for us to join hands because they were in the government and implementing anti-people policies. Even our small demand for an enquiry into the killings of Charu Majumdar and Saroj Datta for which various movements have been raised, has gone unheeded. And now when they are faced with a crisis they are saying that the Naxalites should come with them. He once again reiterated that there would be no change in this basic policy of standing in the revolutionary camp.
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Among others who addressed the conference were Kartik Pal, Shankar, Satyan of DYO and Sukumar Ghosh of RYF. Eminent poetess, Mahashweta Devi and writer, Shankh Ghosh sent their greetings to the conference. After this the General Secretary of RYA presented the political and organisational report. The second session started in the afternoon with revolutionary songs presented by the cultural team from Jharkhand. This was followed by a keen discussion on the document, manifesto and the constitution which was continued to the next day. About 400 delegates participated in the session. It was decided to take major initiatives against the criminalisation of politics. Emphasis was also given on sharpening the mass struggles against the anti-people new economic policies of the government. It was felt that the organisation should directly intervene on the question of dalit oppression and along with other progressive groups and dalit organisations should fight for equal opportunities in development for the dalits.
Expressing concern at the low participation of women in the conference, it was decided to seriously take steps to increase their participation. On the nationality question it was felt that the organisation would support the movements of nationalities, minorities, tribals etc. for their language, identity, culture or political rights but will not support any chauvinist movement or movement of individual terrorism.
In the organisational elections the next day, an 81-member National Council was elected from which an 19-member executive was elected. Raja Ram Singh and Lal Bahadur Singh were reelected President and General Secretary, respectively. One of the resolution passed in the conference was to observe 31 March every year as National Youth Day in remembrance of Saheed Chandrashekhar.
GAUTAM