The Kerala unit of CPI(ML) organised a symposium at Kottayam on 11 October 2008 on 'Revitalising the Left Movement in India'. CPI(ML) General Secretary Comrade Dipankar addressed the symposium in which many social activists, dalit leaders, representatives of democratic forces and Left party activists participated in the discussion. The symposium assumed importance in the backdrop of ongoing social and political turmoil being witnessed in the Kerala society that feels betrayed by the dominant Left, the CPI(M).
In Kerala, people had hopes from the LDF government led by VS Achuthanandan. But VS as CM has gone back on the positions he had advocated earlier as leader of the Opposition. The LDF government has not reversed any decisions of the previous UDF regime while vigorously implementing anti-people policies of liberalization. The present government has accepted ADB loan with harsh conditionalities, stopped the much publicized Munnar demolition drive midway yielding to the pressures of the real estate lobby, and is going ahead with elitist projects like Smart City, etc. Now, to appease private investment, it is advocating hire and fire policy, launching a systematic assault on the rights and gains secured by the organized peasant and workers’ movement in the state.
CPI(ML) plans to concentrate in some pockets of three districts, Kottayam, Pathanamthitta and Palakkad, organising agricultural labour and construction labour. Comrade John K Erumely presided over the symposium while OP Kunjupillai, Kanul, Joy Peter, Velayutham and Viswam actively participated in the discussions.
