Red Flags and Banners lining the roadsides showed the way to Shaheed Minar Maidan
A rumbling of a distant thunder was being heard. That was the voice of the builders of revolutionary future-the marchers to the city of Kolkata on 24 April last. 24 April beckoned to the cherished future. The marchers in the winding processions conveyed a message—a new ethos, a new culture is rising. The toiling people, whom the capitalist state machine has forced to sink deep into sub-human existence, are not tolerating it any more. Misery, penury, are no doubt trying to strangle them with unrelenting hands. But there is a leading light before them-the thoughts of the helmsman, revolutionary teachings of the great departed leader, Comrade Shibdas Ghosh, their leader, teacher and guide and an outstanding Marxist thinker and philosopher of the era. So, the oppressed toiling masses in mounting numbers are embracing the ideology of SUCI (Communist) and developing mass movements on the burning problems of life.
Comrade Shibdas Ghosh founded the SUCI (Communist) on 24 April in the year 1948 along with a handful of his revolutionary compatriots, as the genuine Marxist Party on the soil. He braved all odds, overcame all obstacles, ignored all taunts and derisions with the firm conviction and in avid pursuit of truth and built up the Party brick by brick through an exemplary arduous struggle. Truth is invincible, so are the torch-bearers of truth. The Party which began its journey 75 years back following a founding convention in a tiny hall of Jaynagar, West Bengal, is now spread in almost all states of India where the flag of Marxism-Leninism-Shibdas Ghosh Thought is unfurled.
Kolkata had been in ferment. The Foundation Day observance in Kolkata, the headquarter city, has always been of immense significance. It was here that so many meetings on the Party Foundation Day were addressed by Comrade Shibdas Ghosh with his grave and solemn voice rousing not only the Party comrades but also the masses at large to the cause of revolution. He is no more but his thought is alive. So is the Party, his best creation, the vanguard detachment of the revolutionary proletariats of India. At the call of the West Bengal state Committee, a mass meeting was held at Shaheed Minar Maidan at the heart of the city. The dais was a vast Red Flag and in the middle of it was placed a huge portrait of Comrade Shibdas Ghosh bedecked with flowers. In scorching sun with mercury touching 40 degree Celsius, stream of processions from various parts of the state converged at the venue dot at 3pm. It was in 2017 that the last Foundation Day meeting was held here. Then there has been a five-year gap because of elections and pandemic. So, this year’s meeting assumed an extra importance. When the Maidan assumed the look of a stream of people, Comrade Chandidas Bhattacharjee, Polit Bureau member and West Bengal State Secretary, began the proceedings. The meeting began with the song composed on 24 April, the foundation day, then the song on Comrade Shibdas Ghosh was sung while the whole rally stood in deference to Comrade Shibdas Ghosh and the Party he built up. Three resolutions-one paying homage to the departed leaders and workers and the other two on the national situation and Russian aggression of Ukraine respectively were placed and adopted. Then Guard of Honour to the great leader of the proletariat Comrade Shibdas Ghosh was offered by KOMSOMOL, the young communist league of the SUCI (C). As the parading teens along with boys and girls of very tender age came in sight, their youthful energy, their rhythmic steps, the sound of the band and bugle created an atmosphere of high emotion. At the call of their leader for Red Salute, leaders on the dais and the entire rally responded with clenched fists with deepest respect for Comrade Shibdas Ghosh. Then Comrade Provash Ghosh, beloved General Secretary of the Party, delivered his valuable speech covering almost all the national and international issues and unmasking the conspiracy of the ruling monopolists and their subservient parties against the common oppressed masses. While exposing the fascist autocratic policies and measures of the RSS-BJP, he also showed how the Trinamool Congress (TMC), like all the bourgeois parties in and out of power, was vigorously implementing pro-capitalist policies. He satirically pointed out that the politics of distributing doles and freebies by all the ruling parties including the BJP and TMC are virtually their investment for reaping benefits not only in election but also by squeezing even the last drop of blood of the common masses through fiscal and other measures. He also criticized the CPI (M) for pursuing anti-left politics and hobnobbing with the Congress and Muslim fundamentalist outfit for petty electoral gains. BJP’s rise was due to a great extent CPI (M)’s flawed political line. It was the Congress, who faithfully served the exploitative capitalist class for a long time. Now BJP had taken up the reins and was acting hyper-active juggernaut crushing people’s unity and people’s movements in the name of Hindutva. The need of the hour was to build up mighty sustained mass movement with the objective of anti-capitalist socialist revolution. (Full speech of Comrade Provash Ghosh will come out in a later issue.) The meeting ended with the song, The Internationale.
