Socialist Unity Centre of India
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| Socialist Unity Center of India | |
 |
|
| General Secretary | Nihar Mukherjee |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1948 |
| Alliance | Independent |
| Seats in Lok Sabha | None |
| Seats in Rajya Sabha | None |
| Political ideology | Marxism-Leninism, Shibdas Ghosh thoughts |
| Publications | English.Proletarian Era |
| Students wing | All India Democratic Students Organisation |
| Youth wing | All India Democratic Youth Organisation |
| Women's wing | All India Mahila Sanskritik Sanghathan |
| Labour wing | All India United Trade Union Centre |
| Peasants wing | All India Krishak Khet Majdoor Sangathan |
| Website | www.suci.in |
| See also the politics of India series | |
The Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) is a communist party in India. The party was founded by Shibdas Ghosh in 1948.
Contents |
[edit] Ideology
SUCI considers itself as the only genuine communist party in India,[1] and follows a Marxist-Leninist ideological line formulated by Shibdas Ghosh. The party rejects political ideas such as glasnost and perestroika as revisionist, and claims to uphold the original intent of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Lenin, Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, and thoughts of Ghosh.[2]
SUCI holds that India is a capitalist country. In line with that analysis, the party works for Socialist Revolution, rather than People's Democratic Revolution (like CPI(M)), National Democratic Revolution (like CPI) or New Democratic Revolution (like the Naxalites).[3]
[edit] Parliamentary politics
From its inception, SUCI took part in parliamentary elections and was part of the United Front governments in West Bengal in 1967-1969 and 1969-1970 together with CPI(M) and others. The SUCI had a presence in the legislative assemblies of Assam, Bihar and Orissa at various times. As of 2006, it has two MLAs in West Bengal and one in Orissa.[4]
In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections SUCI launched 56 candidates, 30 of them from West Bengal.
[edit] Current situation
The stronghold of the party is in the South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, in areas such as Jaynagar Mazilpur where it controls certain municipalities.
SUCI is actively involved in the ongoing anti-SEZ movements in India. The most notable of these movements that the party is active in are:
- The Singur movement against the SEZ for the Tata Group's car factory.[5][6][7]
- The Nandigram movement against the SEZ for the Salim Group's chemical hub.[8][9][10][11][12] SUCI is one of the main backers of the Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee.
SUCI analyses the Indian Union Budget of 2008-2009 "to be not for the common man as is serves no purpose for the middle class" and has carried out protests against the budget in various parts of the country[13]
The party has formed a political front in West Bengal with All India Trinamool Congress to fight the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on an agreement that the alliance will maintain equidistance from the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.[14][15]
[edit] Campaigns
One of the major campaigns of the party in West Bengal has been its agitations against the educational policy of the Left Front state government. The decision of the Left Front government to remove the English language from primary education sparked a mass movement led by the SUCI for the reinsertion of English.[16][17][18]
Below is a chronological list of campaigns organized by the SUCI in the West Bengal:
- 1953: Tram fare protest movement was organized by the SUCI.[19]
- 1954: In 1954, the SUCI organized the teachers’ movement.[19]
- 1956: Banga bihar sanjukti birodhi andolan.[19]
- 1958: Students’ movement was organized by the party.[19]
- 1959: The SUCI organized food movement.[19]
- 1967: Another food movement was led by the party.[19]
- 1979: The SUCI organized a movement against various decisions taken by the Government of India.[19]
- 1980: The SUCI organized Bhasha andolan against the Government of West Bengal which continues till now.[19]
- 1983: A movement was led by the party against bus fare hike.[19]
- 1988: First Party Congress in Kolkata(24-29March)
- 1990: Another movement was organized by the SUCI against the Government of West Bengal for bus fare hike and a Bangla bandh in September to protest against the death of Madhai Halder, a party supporter killed in police firing at the Esplanade on August 31, 1990. This was the first bandh.[19]
- 1991: A protest was led by the organization against electricity price hike.[19]
- 1991: The SUCI organized a movement against the state education policy.[19]
- 1998: Bangla bandh on February 3 in order to bring back English at the primary education. This was the second bandh.[19]
- 2000: The SUCI organized a protest movement demanding English as a compulsory subject at primary education.[19]
- 2002: A protest was organized against the decision of the Government of West Bengal to increase hospital fee and the increase in electricity charges by the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation and West Bengal State Electricity Board. This was the third bandh.[19]
- 2006-ongoing: The Anti SEZ movements in Singur[5][7] and Nandigram.[8][9][10][11][12]
- 2008: April 21st 12-hour state-wide shutdown in West Bengal jointly called by the Trinamool Congress and the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) [20], [21]
A major campaign of the party in Kerala was against the much criticized District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) funded by the World Bank[22]. The agitation resulted in the setting up of a committee by the state government to review the education policy in 2001. Based on the committee's recommendations, the government revoked the decision of the previous LDF government to extend DPEP curriculum to the 8th standard. The DPEP textbooks where withdrawn and the previous textbooks as per previous curriculum and syllabus was reinstated.[23][24]
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[edit] Leadership
After Ghosh's death in 1976 Nihar Mukherjee, a co-founder of SUCI, became the General Secretary.[25] Secretaries of the State Committees of the party are:
- Andhra Pradesh: Kunche Sridhar
- Assam: Kalyan Choudhury
- Bihar: Shiv Shankar
- Haryana: Satyavan
- Karnataka: K. Radhakrishna
- Kerala: C.K Lukose
- Orissa: Tapas Dutta (expired)
- Uttar Pradesh: V.N. Singh
- West Bengal: Provash Ghosh
Secretaries of the State Organizing Committees are:
- Delhi: Pratap Samal[26]
- Madhya Pradesh: Uma Prasad[27]
- Tamil Nadu: V.P Nandakumar (Office Secretary)[28]
- Gujarat: Dwarika Nath Rath[29]
The MLAs of the party are:
- Sambhunath Naik: Jashipur (ST) constituency, Orissa
- Joykrishna Haldar: Kultali (SC) constituency, West Bengal[30]
- Debaprasad Sarkar: Joynagar constituency, West Bengal[31]
In 2005 Probodh Purkait, a SUCI MLA who represented Kultali constituency for 30 years, was convicted for murder and sentenced to life term by the Calcutta High Court.[32] SUCI denounced the court ruling as a 'conspiracy of CPI(M)'.[33]
[edit] Mass organizations
The principal mass organizations of SUCI are:
- All India United Trade Union Centre
- All India Democratic Students Organisation
- All India Democratic Youth Organisation
- All India Mahila Sanskritik Sanghathan
- All India Krishak Khet Majdoor Sangathan
[edit] Publications
The central organ of SUCI is the Proletarian Era, an English forthnighly published from Kolkata.
The state committees of the party publishes:
- Ganadabi (Bangla weekly, published from Kolkata)
- Unity (Malayalam monthly, published from Thiruvananthapuram)
- Ganamukti (Assamese monthly, published from Guwahati)
- Karmika Drushtikona (Kannada monthly, published from Bangalore)
- Pattali Chinthanai (Tamil monthly, published from Chennai)
- Sarbahara (Oriya monthly, published from Bhubaneswar)
- Sarbahara Dristhikon (Hindi forthnighly, published from Delhi)
- Socialist Viplavam (Telugu monthly, published from Hyderabad)
[edit] References
Communism in India
 |
|
Communist Party of India |
|
Communist Party of India (Marxist) |
|
Naxalbari uprising |
|
Socialist Unity Centre of India |
|
A. K. Gopalan |
| Communism Portal |
- ^ Why SUCI is the only genuine communist party in India
- ^ A brief introduction to the Socialist Unity Centre of India
- ^ SUCI critique on Naxal movement
- ^ Prez poll punches - SUCI member abstains in Orissa; BJP ‘dissidents’ vote for Pratibha in Ahmedabad
- ^ a b Singure issue triggers protests in Howrah
- ^ Singur has turned violent thanks to brutal and anti-people stance of ironic communist government of West Bengal
- ^ a b Singur: Medha Patkar visits dead girl's family
- ^ a b Mamata resigns from LS
- ^ a b Extend support to Nandigram people: SUCI
- ^ a b SUCI Protests against repression in Nandigram
- ^ a b Nandigram turns blood red
- ^ a b Cancel SEZs in Bengal, Buddha urged
- ^ 21 SUCI supporters arrested
- ^ Trinamool-SUCI front organises first rally
- ^ Trinamool Congress to tie up with SUCI
- ^ Millions Rise Up For Total Bangla Bandh (total General Strike)
- ^ Bandh call banks on past success
- ^ Twist of the mother tongue
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o How much do you know about SUCI?
- ^ Trinamool-sponsored strike paralyses life in West Bengal
- ^ 12-hour shutdown against price rise in West Bengal
- ^ Series of Education Reform and Management
- ^ Notes on “Issues in school education in contemporary Kerala” after May 2001
- ^ Movement Against DPEP Attains Victory in Kerala
- ^ A brief introduction to the Socialist Unity Centre of India
- ^ SUCI protest against price hike
- ^ PE05152005.p65
- ^ Tamil Nadu SUCI on Tsunami
- ^ SUCI will field candidates in Gujarat elections
- ^ State Elections 2006 - Partywise Comparision for 102-Kultali Constituency of West Bengal
- ^ State Elections 2006 - Partywise Comparision for 103-Joynagar Constituency of West Bengal
- ^ Life-term for MLA, Report in the Hindu
- ^ Why CPI(M) conspires to implicate SUCI MLA and others in a false case
[edit] External links
- Marxists Internet Archive: Shibdas Ghosh — Marxists Internet Archive
- Proletarian Era — a SUCI publication
- How much do you know about SUCI? — An article in The Times of India
