Dedicated to the struggles against the culture of exploitation and oppression, the 12th National Conference was organised successfully in Durg (Chhattisgarh) on the 13th and 14th November 2010. Representatives from Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Orissa, as well as West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra participated. Professor Manager Pandey and Pranay Krishna were once again elected as President and General Secretary. A 115 member National Council was elected. Representatives from Maharashtra were also made a part of the EC. 19 names were included in the National Council, along with Noor Zaheer, writer, journalist and dancer, and daughter of Sajjad Zaheer, the founder of Progressive Writers’ Association.
Manglesh Dabral, Ashok Bhowmik, Shobha Singh, Viren Dangwal, Ramji Rai, Madan Kashyap, Ravi Bhushan, Ramnihal Gunjan, Shambhu Badal, and Siyaram Sharma were elected National vice Presidents.
Muktibodh and Shankar Guha Niyogi, two symbols of creativity and struggle, were the focus of the conference. The inspiring rendition by comrades from Hirawal (Patna) of Andhere Mein (In the Dark), a poem by Muktibodh, rang through the Shankar Guha Niyogi Hall in Durg, and was followed by a play. The conference observed a minute’s silence to remember Comrade Ram Naresh Ram, student leader Comrade Rajesh, publisher and writer Sohan Sharma, theatre person Sivaram, poet Girda, and Amitabh Dasgupta.
The conference was inaugurated with the Muktibodh Memorial Lecture delivered by noted poet Manglesh Dabral. While speaking on the theme of the lecture – power and culture – he outlined how the state has become completely unrepentant on the oppression of various segments of society, whether it is US aggression in the Middle East, or the barbaric repression of adivasis, minorities, workers or dalits by the Indian state. He also stressed the need for literary and cultural interventions to combat the idioms of state, capital, and the market.
Professor Manager Pandey presided over the session. The well know poet, Nabarun Bhattacharya, underlined the need for a struggle inspired by Muktibodh and Shankar Guha Niyogi, a struggle that will stand up to global imperialist forces and their regional peddlers who are responsible for the oppression and displacement of the adivasis and toiling masses of this country.
The reading and discussion of the draft document took place on the second day. Addressing the delegates, Processor Manager Pandey said that it is equally important to remember our sources of hope - including struggles against US imperialism as witnessed in Cuba, Venezuela and people’s struggles against SEZs in India. He urged those present that each such resistance be documented and commemorated in an effort to give a direction to people’s aspirations expressed in various forms of cultural production today. He said that socialism is even more relevant today, and that cultural production would have to urgently be oriented towards the project of creating a socialist world view.
The conference was brought to a close with a performance by Patna Hirawal of a poem written by Dinesh Kumar Shukla in memory of Gorakh Pandey and a dramatisation of the poem Andhere Mein by Hirawal (Bhilai).
There were bookstalls at the conference venue, set up by the Lenin Pustak Kendra (Lucknow), Gorakhpur Film Society, and Samkaleen Janmat.
