Against the backdrop of deepening economic and political crisis in the country, All India Left Coordination (AILC) held an important political convention at Kozhikode in Kerala on 22 January, 2011. The convention was hosted by the Left Coordination Committee, Kerala.

Before the convention, a 1000-strong spirited rally marched through major streets of Kozhikode. The convention was chaired by an 8-member presidium comprising senior leaders of the four constituents of the AILC. The CPI(ML) was represented in the convention by Comrades Dipankar Bhattacharya, S Kumarasamy, V Shankar from the CC and members of the party’s Kerala leading team including Comrades John K Erumely and Joy Peter and K M Venugopalan, Convener of IIMS in Kerala.

Delivering the inaugural speech, Comrade Mangat Ram Pasla, Secretary of CPM (Punjab) called upon all genuine Left ranks in Kerala to rise to the occasion and intensify the people’s struggle on all fronts against the disastrous policies of the ruling classes. He congratulated the LCC for its spirited rejection of the corrupt and decadent leadership and the opportunist line of the CPI(M) and appealed to all sincere and fighting Left forces in the state to rally around the AILC.

In his address Comrade Dipankar described the AILC as a product of the popular urge for an effective communist answer to the growing crisis of credibility and legitimacy of the ruling classes. Against the CPI(M) line of ‘all for a share in bourgeois state power’ he said the AILC upheld the line of ‘all for communist assertion, all for people’s struggles’. Drawing attention to the burning issues of the day, announced the AILC’s forthcoming plan of action – a month-long countrywide mass campaign against rising prices, growing corruption, unemployment and state repression and assault on democracy from 11 February to culminate in a Parliament March in Delhi on 11 March. Com. Bhimrao Bhansod, General Secretary of Lal Nishan Party (Leninist) spoke about the AILC initiative in Maharashtra in support of the popular struggle against the Jaitapur nuclear power park and ongoing struggles in Maharashtra by adivasis, workers and peasants.

Com. Murali, Left Coordination Committee of Kerala recollected the terror being unleashed against any form of dissent inside CPI(M) and traced the process in which LCC emerged as an alternative Left. He also highlighted the performance of LCC in recent local body elections in which, fighting against both LDF and UDF the LCC won 60 seats on various levels in the recent panchayat and municipal elections in Kerala.

Com. Kumarasamy, PB member of CPI(ML) and the president of AICCTU expressed his hope of LCC emerging as an alternative current in Kerala against the bi-polar domination of the LDF and the UDF. Observing the two-way migration of workers in which people from Kerala were being forced to look for jobs outside the state while more and more people from West Bengal, Bihar and Odisha sought their livelihood in Kerala, he stressed the need for united working class struggles and greater cooperation on the trade union front between the two neighbouring southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Com. TP Chandrasekar, president of LCC shared the experiences of their victory in Onchiyam Panchayat that is otherwise considered to be a traditional stronghold of CPI(M). He also shared the traumatic course of events that included brutal physical attack against LCC activists in the region.

The convention was introduced by Com. Hariharan, Vice-President of LCC while participants were welcomed by Com. Kumaran Kutty, Secretary of LCC. Dr. Azad, Vice-President, LCC, presented the Delhi Declaration of AILC in Malayalam. Comrade Smitha, another Vice-President of the organization, read out the resolutions of the convention while Com. Kunhikaran of the Reception Committee presented vote of thanks.

The Kozhikode convention was preceded by similar political conventions of the AILC in Ranchi (11 August 2010), Kolkata (5 October 2010), Jalandhar (7 November, 2010) and Mumbai (4 December, 2010).

V Shankar