The All India Forward Bloc invited the CPI(ML) to attend an anti-imperialist convention at Jabalpur on March 11, 2008. In a letter to the Forward Bloc General Secretary Comrade Debabrata Biswas accepting the invitation on behalf of the Party, CPI(ML) General Secretary Comrade Dipankar wrote, “The spirit of uncompromising struggle against imperialism demands immediate separation of the Left’s political agenda and identity from the policy direction of the Congress and the UPA government. The people of India have time and again come out on the streets to express their wholehearted disapproval of the UPA government’s policies. It is our duty to lead this growing mass resentment and resistance towards a powerful anti-imperialist national awakening of the Indian people. The CPI(ML) looks forward to closer political cooperation with the Forward Bloc and other Left, democratic and patriotic forces in united mass action against imperialism and pro-imperialist policies of the Indian ruling classes.”
Speakers included Rajaram Singh, CCM, CPI(ML), Uday Pratap Singh, MP and leader of Samajwadi Party, Arvind Shrivastava of the CPI, Mohd Salim, CPI(M) MP, Abani Roy, MP and General Secretary of the RSP, Shri Surendra Mohan, veteran socialist leader, Dr Sunilam, MLA in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, and Prakash Rao of the CGPI, as well as representatives from the Communist Party of Vietnam, the Communist Party of Cuba, Workers Party of Korea, Communist Party of Nepal (UML), Janatha Vimukti Perumana (JVP- Peoples Liberation Front) from Sri Lanka, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Workers Party of Bangladesh and the National League of Democracy of Myanmar also attended the Convention.
