"Revenge-seeking is a narrow minded mentality that is causing great harm to the cause of the Indian communist movement", said Comrade Lal Singh, General Secretary of Communist Ghadar Party of India, addressing party members and supporters in different cities. These meetings have been held to discuss the state of the communist movement and the necessity to restore the unity of Indian communists.

Principled unity among communists is urgently needed today, as the working class faces heightened attacks on its livelihood and rights. The toiling masses of India are facing an aggressive big bourgeoisie that wants to race ahead of many other capitalist states and join the big league of imperialist powers of the world. At the base of this Indian imperialist strategy is the intensification of exploitation and plunder of the land and labour of the workers and peasants.

The second edition of Congress Party led government with Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister has unleashed a campaign of state terror and repression in the name of wiping out terrorists, extremists and insurgents. This campaign is aimed at all communists and revolutionaries.  It is aimed at all organisations and all sections of the people who are opposing the bourgeois offensive and fighting in defence of their livelihood and rights.

The situation calls for a mature and united response on the part of Indian communists. At such a time, for parties that call themselves communist to be organising street demonstrations against one another, fighting violently and killing each other's members and supporters, is to cause enormous damage to the name and cause of communism.

In the course of discussing the impact of the recent developments in Lalgarh, West Bengal, Comrade Lal Singh pointed out that communists must never lose sight of their main aim and target. Our main aim is to lead the working class in the struggle to overthrow the rule of the bourgeoisie and establish the rule of those who toil. The aim of worker-peasant rule will be to carry out the transformation from capitalism to socialism, eliminating all forms of exploitation of one person by another. The ultimate goal is to build a classless communist society. The immediate actions of communists must be consistent with the strategic aims of the movement.

Communists cannot and must not become managers of bourgeois rule.  A communist party must not merge with the existing state power. It must inspire, mobilise and enable the workers, peasants, women and youth to organise and fight to establish a new political order in which they, the toiling majority, are the rulers. At the same time, communists must not fall for the line of individual acts of terror as the means of bringing about revolution.  Revolution is not brought about by individual heroes.  It can only be brought about by millions of workers and peasants, acting as organised detachments of one mighty political force.

Factional infighting is an old disease in the Indian communist movement from its very inception in the 1920's. Within the central leadership of the communist party, different groups acted as factions, conspiring against each other and justifying it. They did not follow the principled method of taking the disagreement to higher forums for resolution through democratic discussion, up to and including the Congress of the party.

When major disagreements emerged in the undivided Communist Party of India in the 1960s, for instance, there were leaders who formed their own faction and acted as if the main enemy is the other faction, not the bourgeoisie in power.  Once two factions start fighting each other as if this is the class struggle, the unity of the communist movement gets damaged and the working class and people suffer a setback as a result.

Revenge-seeking has been a by-product of these factional fights. Different factions have justified using whatever means possible to get back at the 'enemy' faction. They have justified collaborating with the bourgeois state, handing over names of rival party activists to the police, using the court to get opponents into trouble, as well as unleashing violence to crush the opponent. Defaming those who disagree by calling them class enemies, police informers or state agents has become a widespread practice in the communist movement. Killing members of a rival faction or party gets promoted as "just revenge" for "what they did to us". There is no end to such revenge seeking, which keeps the broad masses of people away from politics, and makes them suspicious and afraid of communists. Such infighting serves the ruling bourgeoisie to maintain its rule and keep the working class divided and politically impotent.

Comrade Lal Singh reiterated that there is one communist movement, not many. The working class needs one united communist party at its head, not many parties pulling in different directions. 

Even though the communist movement is plagued with serious internal differences, we must never forget that in the eyes of the broad masses of workers and peasants, any party that has communist in its name and waves the red flag is communist. The action of any party or group that calls itself communist has an impact on all communists without exception. This creates a complex situation.  Communists must respond to this situation by seeking to politically restore the unity of the movement, by sorting out the line and program around which we must unite and harmful tendencies that we must shed. We must reject and oppose the use of violence as a method of sorting out differences within the movement.

The real division that needs to become clear to all is the political division between those who want to preserve the existing state and those who want to put an end to it and begin afresh, with a new state of workers and peasants.

The times are calling on all communists to engage in serious discussion and debate cutting across party lines, on the political line and program around which the unity of communists must be forged today. If communists frankly express their thoughts and share their experience, listen to each other, and continue to discuss seriously and repeatedly, without striking arrogant postures or engaging in name calling, then we can collectively find the solution to the problem. This was the key message that emerged from the discussions.

Everyone who participated in these meetings left the hall in a deeply reflective mood, with a deeper appreciation of the challenging situation and the necessity to act with communist maturity and courage.