Maoist Documents

URBAN PERSPECTIVE
OUR WORK IN URBAN AREAS

 

CONTENTS

1. Introduction 7

2. Urban India 8

2.1 Urbanisation Pattern 9

2.2 Changes in Class Composition and Structure of Cities 12

2.2.1 De-industrialisation of major cities 12

2.2.2 Changes in the Workforce 13

2.2.3 Division or Segmentation of Cities 14

2.2.4 Ghettoisation 16

3. Policy and Guidelines 17

3.1.1 Role of Urban Work within the Political Strategy 17

3.1.2 Role of Urban Work within the Military Strategy 18

3.1.3 Long-term Approach 19

3.2 Main Objectives of Our Urban Work 20

3.3 Mass Mobilisation and Party Building 21

3.3.1 Types of Mass Organisations 22

3.3.1.1 Secret Revolutionary Mass Oganisations 22

3.3.1.2 Open Revolutionary Mass Organisations 24

3.3.1.3 Fractional Work 26

3.3.1.4 Party-formed Cover Mass Organisations 29

3.3.1.5 Legal Democratic Organisations 30

3.3.2 Organising at the Place of Residence 33

3.3.3 Party-Building 35

3.3.3.2 Activist Groups 36

3.3.3.3 Political Education 37

3.3.4 Party Structure 40

3.3.4.1 Party Cell 40

3.3.4.2 Part-Timer Party Committees 42

3.3.4.3 Party Fractions 42

3.3.4.4 Layers 44

3.3.4.5 Coordination and Links with Other Party

Structures 44

3.4 United Front 45

3.4.1 Working Class Unity 46

3.4.1.1 Industry-based Unity 47

3.4.1.2 Issue-based Unity 47

3.4.1.3 Area-based Unity 48

3.4.1.4 Workers’ Platforms 48

3.4.2 Worker-Peasant Alliance 49

3.4.3 Unity of the urban exploited classes 51

3.4.3.1 Unity with the semi-proletariat 51

3.4.3.2 White-collar Employees 53

3.4.3.3 Other sections of the Petty Bourgeoisie 54

3.4.4 Relations with the National Bourgeoisie 55

3.4.5 Front Against Repression 56

3.4.6 United Front Against Hindu Fascist Forces 57

3.4.7 Front against Globalisation, Liberalisation and

Privatisation 58

3.5 Military Tasks 60

3.5.1 Defence of the Urban Movement 60

3.5.1.1 Open Self Defence Teams 60

3.5.1.2 Secret Self Defence Squads 61

3.5.1.3 Urban Militia 62

3.5.1.4 Local Intelligence 62

3.5.2 Help to the Rural Armed Struggle 63

3.5.2.1 Work in Key Industries 63

3.5.2.2 Infiltration into the Enemy Camp 65

3.5.2.3 Sending Cadre to the Rural Areas and

the PGA/PLA 65

3.5.2.4 Logistical Support to the Armed Struggle 66

3.5.3 Urban Military Operations under Central Direction68

3.5.3.1 City Action Teams 68

3.5.3.2 Central Intelligence 68

3.5.3.3 Cyber Warfare 69

3.6 All-India and State-Level Plans 69

3.6.1 Factors Governing All-India Perspective-Plan 69

3.6.2 State Plans 70

4. Review of Our Understanding and Practice 71

4.1 Earlier Circulars and Policies 71

4.1.1 1973 Circular 72

4.1.2 1987 Guidelines 73

4.1.3 1995 Review 73

4.2 Our Main Shortcomings 74

4.2.1 Lack of Concentration on Urban Work 74

4.2.2 Lack of Concentration on the Working Class

within Urban Work 75

4.2.3 Neglect of Developing Party Leadership from

the Proletariat 76

4.2.4 Lack of Deep Understanding of the Strategic

Approach in Urban Work 76

4.2.5 Lack of clarity on combining the various types of

mass organisations 77

4.2.6 Negligence in Secret Functioning 79

4.2.7 Lack of an All-India Perspective 79

4.3 Principal Defect in Our Understanding 79

5. Immediate Tasks 79

5.1 Introduce Urban and Working Class Specialisation

in the Higher Committees 81

5.2 Draw up All-India and State-level Perspective-plans 80

5.3 Reorient and Reorganise the Urban Organisations

with a Long-Term Strategic Approach 81

5.4 Widely Mobilize the Urban masses, Particularly the

Working Class 82

5.5 Recruit and Develop Party Leadership from the

Working Class 83

5.6 Reorganise the Tech Mechanism in the Cities 83

5.7 Prepare the Self-Defence Organs of the Urban

Movement 84

5.8 Take up Work in Key Industries 84

5.9 Infiltrate into Enemy Organisations 84

5.10 Build the United Front in the urban areas 85

INTRODUCTION

The Strategy and Tactics document adopted at the Ninth Congress of 2001 explains the importance of urban work within the strategy of Indian Revolution in the following manner:

"Work in the urban areas has a special importance in our revolutionary work. …..in our revolution, which follows the line of protracted people’s war, the liberation of urban areas, will be possible only in the last stage of the revolution. However, this does not mean that there is no need to concentrate on the building of urban revolutionary movement from the beginning. From the beginning we will have to concentrate on the organisation of the working class, which being the leadership of our revolution has to directly participate and lead the agrarian revolution and the people’s war and on building a revolutionary workers movement. Moreover, on the basis of revolutionary workers movement we will be able to mobilize millions of urban oppressed masses and build struggles against imperialism and feudalism, struggles in support of the agrarian revolution and struggles for democratic rights. We will be able to create the subjective forces and conditions required for building a countrywide , broad, anti-imperialist, anti-feudal united front during this course only. The urban movement is one of the main sources, which provides cadres and leadership having various types of capabilities essential for the people’s war and for the establishment of liberated areas… We should not forget the dialectical relationship between the development of the urban movement and the development of the people’s war. In the absence of a strong revolutionary urban movement, the people’s war will face difficulties.

"However, we should not belittle the importance of the fact that the

urban areas are the strong centers of the enemy. Building up of a strong urban revolutionary movement means that our Party should build a struggle network capable of waging struggle consistently, by sustaining itself until the protracted people’s war reaches the stage of strategic offensive. With this long term perspective, we should develop a secret party, an united front and people’s armed elements; intensify the class struggle in the urban areas and mobilize the support of millions of urban masses for the people’s war." [Pages 69-70, S&T].

However, there have been serious shortcomings and mistakes in our understanding and practice over the last thirty years. The Political and Organisational Review of the Ninth Congress thus reviewed as follows, "The importance of urban work in the ongoing people’s war in the country

is well-recognised by our Party and is elaborated in our Strategy-Tactics document. However we have been extremely deficient in perspective, policy and methods of work. We have only made piecemeal changes from time to time, to the policy, contained in the document "Our Work in Urban Areas" brought out by APSC in 1973. We have yet to develop a comprehensive and long-term approach, which takes into account the changing developing trends in urbanization, as well as the policies of the enemy to isolate and crush us in the urban areas. This has led to frequent ups and downs in our urban work in most areas and serious loss of cadres in the areas of repression." [Page 141, POR]

Thus the Congress decided on "A time-bound programme for preparing policy and guidelines for urban work, particularly working class work. This should include a review of our understanding and practice with regard to revolutionary trade unions, mini-guerilla squads, selfdefence squads, workers’ magazine among other things. This should be

followed by a campaign to reorganize our work according to the guidelines." [Page 149, POR]

The present document is part of the attempt to implement the above Congress decision. Part 2 gives a brief picture of urban India, presenting the trends in urbanisation and the changes in class composition, particularly since the policies of liberalisation. Part 3 is the main section which lays out the policy and guidelines for work - our strategic approach and objectives, forms of organisation and forms of struggle, the party, united front and military tasks, propaganda, tech mechanism, and planning. Part 4 reviews the main shortcomings in our understanding and practice of the past 30 years. Part 5 identifies some immediate tasks.

Besides this a separate document, ‘Guidelines for Our Work in the

Working Class’, explains details with regard to working class work.

2. URBAN INDIA

According to the census of 2001, 27.8% of India’s population now lives in the towns and cities. The total urban population is 28.5 crores, which is larger than the total population of the world’s third most populated country - USA. Most of this urban population is situated in large cities. Almost two thirds stay in cities with a population of over one lakh, and 10.8 crores (i.e. 38%) are in 35 metropolitan centres with a population of over 10 lakhs. Three of the world’s twenty mega-cities, with a population of over one crore each, are from India.

The centre of the economy has also moved away from the rural areas. In 1950-51 56% of production came from agriculture, but today less than 25% comes from agriculture. Today most of the country’s production is from the industries and services sectors, which are mainly based in the towns and cities. The urban share in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is thus now over 60%.

India’s urban population size, proportion, and economic weight today is much higher than what was there in China at the time of the revolution. China, then had only about 10% of its production coming from industry and only 11% of the people staying in the urban areas. This would mean that India’s urban areas would have to play a relatively more important role in the revolution, than the cities played during the Chinese revolution.

This however does not mean any change in our basic strategy, which

is based on the uneven economic and political development and the semifeudal, semi-colonial character of Indian society. Current international

experience too shows various semi-colonial countries with large proportions in urban areas successfully advancing the people’s war basing

on rural armed struggle. Though our urban population is large and constantly growing, it’s proportion is still much lower than the percentage of most other semi-colonial countries with movements seriously engaged in armed agrarian revolution. Thus Philippines has 59%, Peru has 73%, and Turkey has 75% urban population. Only Nepal has a lower 12% urban population, though the rate of growth of its urban population is almost double that of India.

2.1 Urbanisation Pattern

Since 1947, four major metropolitan cities, which served as regional capitals under the British, have dominated the process of urbanisation in the country. These were Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai, who respectively served as the central hubs of the east, west, north and south of the country. Since the sixties they have continued to experience growth, though at different paces. Further newer metropolitan centres like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune, are emerging as new hubs of urban growth. The policies of liberalisation are bringing further changes and new patterns of urbanisation have been emerging, which are changing the positions and importance of even the old metropolitan centres.

Delhi continues to maintain its all-India importance, mainly as administrative capital and also due the rapid industrialisation in its surrounding areas. Mumbai as financial capital, has been continuing to grow rapidly and is now among the five largest cities in the world. Kolkataand Chennai continue to maintain their regional importance, but Kolkata has lost its all-India importance as a centre of industry and commerce.

The ups and downs of these main centres is however only a reflection of the country’s sharply unequal pattern of urbanisation. Kolkata is falling back because of its placement in the poorest and least urbanised eastern part of the country, whereas all the new stars are emerging in the most urbanised south and the west. The old hierarchy of four megacities located in different regions of the country is thus giving way to urban corridors and clusters of new investment located mostly in the southern and western parts of the country.

With the exception of the Delhi region and adjacent areas in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh much of the north, the east and the centre of the country have been bypassed. This vast area covering the eastern half of UP and stretching across Bihar, West Bengal, the North-Eastern states, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and the eastern part of Maharashtra is remaining as an area of urban backwardness, with old industrial bases and high unemployment. These areas are thus the main sources of cheap migrant labour for the large metropolitan cities.

The above inequalities are being encouraged by the policies of the government. In the earlier period under industrial licensing there were some small attempts at bringing about balanced industrial development and this led to some projects being set up in relatively backward areas like the central India minerals belt. Now under the liberalisation policies investment is not regulated and goes to the areas promising the greatest profits. Thus the main investment is centred in and around a few areas of growing urban concentration. The main such areas are:-

a) Ahmedabad-Pune Corridor: This stretch of Western India is the main concentration of high industrialisation and urbanisation in the country. It includes four of the top ten cities in the country - Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune and Surat - besides two other cities over ten lakh - Vadodara and Nashik. The industries cover almost all the main industrial groups - engineering, chemicals, textiles, automobiles, telecommunications, electronics, etc. These cities and the adjoining districts attract the largest amount of new investment in the whole country. The working class is the most diverse, having migrated from all parts of the country.

b) Delhi Region: The capital region together with the adjoining areas of Gurgaon and Faridabad in Haryana, and Ghaziabad and NOIDA in UP is a massive urban and industrial zone. It is continuing to advance at a rapid pace in engineering, automobile, electronics, etc. The working class here too is diverse, but mainly from north India.

c) Bangalore: This has for some time been a centre of many major public sector establishments, besides textiles and silk weaving. Electronics and computer software and hardware are the main growth industries, with Bangalore being the software capital of India. It is a fast growing centre.

d) Chennai: The Greater Chennai region has become the industrial hub for the entire south. It has a very diverse range of industries - automobiles, textiles, chemicals, petroleum products, electronics, etc.

e) Coimbatore-Erode Belt: This is the area of fastest growing urbanisation in the country. The principal industries are centred around textiles - mills, powerlooms, knitwear, etc. There are also small and medium engineering units.

f) Hyderabad: Though the actual growth is not as much as the media propaganda of the AP Chief minister, Hyderabad is also a fast growing urban centre. Besides the earlier public sector undertaking and other industries, the new investments are mainly in electronics and information technology. In AP, Vishakhapatnam has also been a centre of growth, attracting big investments.

Most urban centres in other areas are not receiving much investment and are therefore experiencing some level of stagnation. They are however major centres of industry with a large working class. They also play a very important role in their regions. Some of these centres are:-

a) Kolkata: Though it has lost its all-India importance, it remains the centre for the whole of eastern India. It has a large and diverse industrial base, but no major new area of industrial growth. The city too is growing at a slow pace. It has got new investment but a large part is for the expansion of existing plants. The working class is diverse, but basically from eastern India. Due to slow industrial growth unemployment rate is relatively higher.

b) Industrial Cities of Central India: The investments coming into these areas are mainly for power and fuel, and metallurgical industries. However new projects are relatively few and overall unemployment there is growing.

c) Cities of the Gangetic Plain: These cities including old major industrial centres like Kanpur, are not receiving much new investment and are thus stagnating. The cities however continue to grow due to influx from the rural areas.

The above trend and pattern of urban growth has to be taken into account while drawing up a perspective and plan for urban work.

2.2 Changes in Class Composition and Structure of Cities

Besides the changes at the all-India level there are also significant changes taking place within the cities, particularly the largest cities. This is resulting in changes in the nature and composition of the work force, as well as the geographical placement of various classes and communities.

2.2.1 De-industrialisation of major cities

Over the years most major cities have seen a decline in manufacturing activity as compared to business activity in banking, finance, and other service sectors. This process started first with the largest cities, with the close down of many of Kolkata’s jute mills and other industries from the late sixties. This process however became very generalised from the early eighties with the decline of the textile mills in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, and other centres. Lakhs of blue-collar jobs were destroyed without the setting up of any new industries within the city. Since the last twenty years now, hardly any new industry has been located within the major old cities. New industrialisation is normally taking place on the outskirts of the main city, or in the nearby towns and cities. This is combined by an increase of white-collar jobs in the field of services,with investment normally going into these areas.

This process has led to a change in the class composition of most cities, particularly the metropolitan cities. Aggregate data on urban areas as a whole show a gradual decline in the percentage of male workers engaged in manufacturing from 27 per cent in 1983 to 23.6 per cent in 1993-94. For female workers, the decline was from 26 per cent in 1983 to 23.6 per cent in 1993-94. Over the same period, the percentage of male workers engaged in the services sector has increased from 24.8 per cent to 26.4 per cent, the increase for women workers being from 31.4 per cent to 38.8 per cent. Here services has been defined to include finance, insurance and business services and all other services, including community and social services. This indicates that the overall proportion of the industrial proletariat in urban areas throughout India is falling as compared to the employees engaged in offices, marketing establishments, hotels, etc.

While the above figures give the overall picture, the actual situation with regard to particular cities will be different. Since this factor is very important for our organisational perspective, plans, and tasks at the city level, all the respective committees should conduct city level class analysis

regarding the situation and trend in their areas.

2.2.2 Changes in the Workforce

With closures of industries and the accompanying loss of jobs, many workers are forced to take up casual work or earn on their own through hawking, plying rickshaws, running roadside tea stalls and food joints, etc. At the same time new youth entering the work force do not get regular jobs immediately (unemployment rate is the highest in the 15 to 24 age group) and are forced to take casual employment or also run some small trade. This trend is increasing in recent years in the urban areas. At the same time more and more women are being employed in jobs but at much lower wage rates. This trend which had started since the early eighties in most cities has further accelerated since the liberalisation policies.

The percentage of urban males in regular work has dropped and the

percentage of self-employed and casual labourers has gone up. At the same time the percentage of women in regular work has gone up, though this does not affect the total size of the working class so much because women compose only 17% of the total urban workforce.

This then means a change in the composition of the working people. Firstly there has been an increase in the proportion of the semi-proletariat (i.e. self-employed); secondly there has been an increase in the proportion of women workers being paid very low wages; and thirdly there has been an increase in the casual labour force.

Besides the above given changes, another change has been the shift of jobs from the larger factories of the organised sector to the small workshops and industries. In recent years the percentage of workers in the organised sector as compared to the total workforce has fallen from 8.5% in 1991 to 7.1% in 1997 to 6.9% in 1999-2000. As the workers are divided into smaller units their potential for unionisation also reduces.

All the above changes in the workforce have been presented here at the all-India level. These changes have significant consequences for our planning at the city and area levels. We should conduct local class analysis and plan accordingly.

2.2.3 Division or Segmentation of Cities

Cities and towns in India, basing on the colonial pattern, have always had a rich British section and a poorer Indian section. This separation however reduced to some extent in the process of growth of the metropolitan cities. Thus it became quite common to have slums adjoining posh high-rise buildings, and hawkers and vendors occupying space right next to the offices of multinationals in the heart of the central business district. Periodically drives would be taken up to demolish slums or evict hawkers, but they would most often manage to struggle and maintain their space within the centre of the city.

In the liberalisation-globalisation period however the ruling classes in most major cities, aspiring to make them ‘global’ cities, have in a coordinated and planned manner launched numerous measures to push the poor out of the core of the city and preserve it for the economic and social use of imperialist and comprador capital. This process has and is taking place in an intensive manner in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, and in some other metropolitan cities. Similar patterns are however to be seen even in relatively smaller cities.

This process of dividing or segmenting the city is done through various measures. These measures extend from the old measures of slum demolition and hawker eviction to new forms like closure of ‘polluting’ factories, banning of protests in central areas, law changes encouraging privatisation and localisation of urban finance and urban facilities, regulations encouraging concentration of development in the richer zones, etc.

The role of the state is most prominent. Bureaucrats and urban planners operating under direct instructions from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and other imperialist institutions have formulated laws, regulations, policies and master plans, which have given up even the earlier pretence of the slogans of equity and alleviating of urban poverty. Now the basic thrust of the plans are on ‘efficiency’ and ‘clean and green’ cities, which means basically providing sanitized five star enclaves with the best infrastructure and communication facilities for the offices, houses, and entertainment facilities of the corporate managers and elites, while pushing the urban poor along with their ‘unclean’ slums and ‘polluting’ industries to the borders of the city. The basic thrust of the National Capital Plan for Delhi and the 1993 Mega-City programme for the other 5 top cities mentioned above basically has this objective. The High Courts and Supreme Court, aided by anti-people so-called environmentalists, have also played a very active role in this process giving numerous court rulings to speed up this process in the name of ‘public interest’ litigation.

Numerous struggles of the working class and the urban poor have erupted against these measures. The November 2000 revolt of the Delhi working class and national bourgeoisie, and the struggles of Mumbai slum dwellers and Kolkata hawkers are some examples. However despite these struggles the remapping of the mega-cities and other metropolitan cities is proceeding ahead, and the socio-geographic pattern of cities like Mumbai has already changed considerably.

This process has to be dealt with by us at two levels. At one level we must participate in the mass struggles against the process of eviction and fight for the right of the working class and urban poor to live and work in their old areas. At another level we must take account of the changed pattern of the city in our analysis and planning. As part of our class analysis we should also map out the geographical locations of the various classes, both residential and work place. We should take it into account in our plans for organisation, protest, self-defence, etc.

2.2.4 Ghettoisation

A ghetto is a slum or locality inhabited mostly or completely by one community. When a particular community is attacked repeatedly and forced, for their safety, to concentrate in particular areas this process is called ghettoisation. Localities formed on the basis of nationality, caste and religion are very common in almost all Indian towns and cities. However not all have been formed by a process of ghettoisation.

Urban mass violence on the basis of nationality has comparatively infrequent examples like Cauvery riots in Bangalore where the Tamil national minority was attacked, or the 1967 Mumbai attacks on south Indians by Shiv Sena national chauvinists. This is to a great extent because of relative lack of support for such acts from the integrationist all-India ruling classes and the Central state machinery.

Caste violence and caste riots are more numerous, with some towns and cities repeatedly witnessing attacks on dalits. Anti-reservation riots in many parts of the country are a constant form of caste attacks. Such upper caste violence has led to further sharpening the division of many towns and forcing all dalits to live in separate areas to better organise their self-defence.

The main form of violence has however been the attacks and organised pogroms by the Hindu communalists and fascists, primarily against the Muslims, but also against the Sikhs and Christians. This has led to the sharp segregation of the Muslim community and the creation of Muslim mohallas in almost all towns and cities where they have any existence. However with the metropolitanisation of some cities there has been some small shift out of Muslims into other areas. This too is being sought to be drastically reversed by the Hindu fascists during the eighties and the nineties.

The eighties and the nineties have seen the largest number of anti- Muslim pogroms associated with the political ascent of the Hindu fascists of the Sangh parivar. The major centre for this has been the western corridor with massacres of Muslims in almost all the major cities in this belt - Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Mumbai and Surat, as well as other smaller cities like Bhiwandi, Malegaon and Bharuch. The major urban centres of the south too have been centres for communal riots - Coimbatore, Hyderabad, and Bangalore, besides other smaller cities like Mangalore, Bhadravati, etc. Some have also taken place in the cities of Central India and the Gangetic plain. Most of these attacks have been done with the full connivance and even participation of the state forces. Of all these, Gujarat is being taken up by the fascists as a laboratory for an experiment in ethnic cleansing, with systematic physical and economic annihilation of Muslims.

As the Hindu fascists’ campaign spreads in other parts of the country, ghettoisation is bound to sharply intensify in most cities. Purely Muslim areas, suspicious of all others, and organised for self-defence will become essential for the survival of the community. Sharpening of divisions on communal basis can become a serious barrier to building class unity. Our Party in the urban areas has to seriously take the ghettoisation process into account in all plans. Sharp ghettoisation leads to lack of jobs for Muslims and pushes larger sections of them into the semi-proletariat. Thus merely organising within industry will not enable us to enter this oppressed community. Unless we base ourselves in the middle of the ghetto, we will not be able to gain entry into organising the community, we will not also be able to build the united front against the Hindu fascists. Thus, in our planning, we have to clearly identify the ghettos of a city and draw up our plan for gaining entry into them. While doing this, we need to organise them on their basic needs and day to day problems too.

3. POLICY AND GUIDELINES

3.1 Strategic Approach in Urban Work

3.1.1 Role of Urban Work within the Political Strategy

As the Ninth Congress says, "Working class leadership is the indispensable condition for the New Democratic Revolution in India. The working class exercises its leadership in the revolution through its direct participation. Apart from rising under the leadership of the Communist Party in the overall struggle for democracy and liberation and thereby uniting all other sections of the people in anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggles, the working class organizes the agrarian revolution by sending its advanced detachment to the rural areas." [Page 36, S&T]

Thus, being the centres of concentration of the industrial proletariat, urban areas play an important part within the political strategy of the New Democratic Revolution. It is the task of the party in the urban areas to mobilise and organise the proletariat in performing its crucial leadership role. Urban work thus means, firstly, forming the closest possible links with the working class, and, through the class struggle, establishing the party as a proletarian vanguard; further, it means the mobilisation and unification of all other sections under proletarian leadership in the struggle to achieve the tasks of the revolution.

3.1.2 Role of Urban Work within the Military Strategy

The specific characteristics of revolutionary war in India "determine the military strategy to be one of protracted people’s war - of establishing revolutionary base areas first in the countryside where the enemy is militarily weak and then to gradually surround and capture the cities which are the bastions of the enemy forces." [Page 8, S&T]

Thus it is clear that the armed struggle and the movement in the rural areas will play the primary role, and the work in the cities will play a secondary role, complementary to the rural work. However, while giving first priority to the rural work, we must also give due importance to the urban struggle. Without a strong urban revolutionary movement, the ongoing people’s war faces difficulties; further, without the participation of the urban masses it is impossible to achieve countrywide victory. As Com. Mao says, "the final objective of the revolution is the capture of the cities, the enemy’s main bases, and this objective cannot be achieved without adequate work in the cities." (Mao, Selected Works, Vol. II, Pg. 317).

Thus the correct dialectical relationship has to be maintained between the development of the urban movement and the development of the people’s war. We should, by building up a strong urban movement, ensure that the urban masses contribute to creating the conditions that will obtain success for the armed struggle in the countryside. As we have seen in the earlier section, India has a larger proportion of the population in urban areas and a much larger working class than at the time of the Chinese revolution. This too increases the relative importance of urban work in the particular conditions of Indian revolution.

3.1.3 Long-term Approach

The cities and big industrial centres are the strongholds of reaction where the enemy is the most powerful. In these places the police, army, other state organs, and other forces of counter-revolution are concentrated and are in a dominant position from which they can suppress the people’s forces. At the same time our Party’s work and organisation is extremely weak and generally cannot achieve a dominant position till the final stages of the people’s war. It is this objective reality which determines our policy towards work in the urban areas.

In such a situation, where the enemy is much stronger, we cannot have a short-term approach of direct confrontation in order to achieve ‘quick results’. Rather, we should have a long-term approach. The task of the Party is to win over the masses, including the vast majority of the workers, and to build up the enormous strength of the working class in preparation for the decisive struggle in the future. Now is not the time for this final struggle between the revolution and counter revolution, and we should therefore avoid engaging the enemy in such a fight while the conditions are not in our favour. This means that we should act chiefly on the defensive (and not on the offensive); our policy should be one of protecting, preserving, consolidating and expanding the Party forces, while mobilising and preparing the broad urban masses for revolutionary struggle.

As Com. Mao, while outlining the tasks of the Party in the urban and other white areas dominated by the reactionaries, explained, "the Communist Party must not be impetuous and adventurist in its propaganda and organizational work…………..it must have well-selected cadres working underground, must accumulate strength and bide its time there. In leading the people in struggle against the enemy, the Party must adopt the tactics of advancing step by step slowly and surely, keeping to the principle of waging struggles on just grounds, to our advantage, and with restraint, and making use of such open forms of activity as are permitted by law, decree and social custom; empty clamour and reckless action can never lead to success." (Mao, Selected Works, Vol. II, Pg. 318)

In order to mobilise the broadest possible sections in struggle it is absolutely essential that we should utilise all possible open and legal opportunities for work (and not reject the use of legality). Broad mass organisations help the Party to have wide contact with masses, so that it can work under cover for a long time and accumulate strength. While exploring the open opportunities, it is essential that we organise people into secret organisations too.

Broad, open and legal forms of organising the masses have, however, to be combined with the strictest methods of secrecy, especially with regard to the link between the open and underground organisation. All precautions should be taken to protect the identity of our comrades in the open organisations and contacts with the underground organisatiion should be maintained at the minimum. At the same time particular care should be taken to ensure that the underground structures do not get exposed and smashed. For this a long term approach and patience are absolutely essential. We should be even ready to sacrifice the short-term requirements of doing a particular job well in order to avoid endangering the long-term existence and functioning of the underground structure.

3.2 Main Objectives of Our Urban Work

Work in the cities and towns involves a number of tasks. All these

tasks can however be combined under three broad heads or objectives.

They are as follows: -

1) Mobilise and organise the basic masses and build the Party on that basis: This is the main activity of the Party. It is the Party’s task to organise the working class, as well as other classes and sections like the semi-proletariat, students, middle class employees, intellectuals, etc. It also has the task of dealing with the problems of special social groups like women, dalits, and religious minorities and mobilising them for the revolutionary movement. It is on this basis that the masses are politicized and the advanced sections consolidated into the Party.

2) Build the United Front: This involves the task of unifying the working class, building worker-peasant solidarity and alliance, uniting with other classes in the cities, building the fronts against globalisation, against Hindu fascism, against repression, etc. This is a very important aspect of the work of the Party in the city.

3) Military Tasks: While the main military tasks are performed by the PGA and PLA in the countryside, the urban movement too performs tasks complementary to the rural armed struggle. These involve the sending of cadre to the countryside, infiltration of enemy ranks, organising in key industries, sabotage actions in coordination with the rural armed struggle, logistical support, etc.

Of the above three, the first task of organising the basic masses is fundamental and primary. Without widely mobilising the masses it is not possible to perform any of the other tasks such as building of UF and performing the military tasks.

3.3 Mass Mobilisation and Party Building

We need to build the broadest mass base by building various types of mass organisations, such as, open revolutionary mass organisations, legal democratic organisations, secret mass organisations, cover organisations, etc. Depending upon the situation one or other type of organisation becomes primary for that period. But keeping in mind long term approach, we need to build several types of mass organisations simultaneously.

Thus the general principle with regard to urban forms of organisation is that the mass organisations should be as wide as possible. As the Indian political situation is uneven, we need to explore right combination of various types of mass organisations. While there is no possibility to form open revolutionary mass organisations in AP, there are several states in which still such possibility still exists.

Thus we may organise the people in several forms, depending on the situation. But Party building should always be done with utmost secrecy. As the experience of work in Shanghai city, where the white terror was utmost, during the Chinese Revolution shows, "the party organisation should be secret, the more secret, the better. Whereas, a mass organisation should be open, the wider, the better." This principle could be creately applied to our conditions.Those organisations, which openly propagate Party politics, should generally function secretly. Those organisations functioning openly and legally, generally cannot openly identify with the Party, and should work under some cover with a limited programme.

Correctly coordianating between illegal and legal structures,we should have an approach of step by step raising the forms of struggle and preparing the masses to stand up against the might of the state.

3.3.1 Types of Mass Organisations

Our POR identifies three types of mass organisations:- 1)secret revolutionary mass organisations, 2)open and semi-open revolutionary mass organisations, and 3)open legal mass organisations, which are not directly linked to the Party. Urban work within the third type of organisations can further be subdivided into three broad categories:- a)fractional work, b)party-formed cover organisations, and c)legal democratic organisations.

3.3.1.1 Secret Revolutionary Mass Oganisations

These organisations remain strictly underground and propagate the Party’s revolutionary line among the masses rousing them for armed struggle. They openly call upon the masses to participate in the people’s war, propagate the central task drawn up by the Party at any given time, secretly organise the masses into struggles and directly serve as the base for recruitment for the Party and the people’s war. These mass organisations are built clandestinely and conduct secret propaganda. They are built around a clear-cut and explicit revolutionary programme. Acceptance of the aims of the revolution and willingness to work secretly are thus minimum criteria for membership.

In our party such mass organisations were not formed as a plan. They emerged in and around the struggle areas when the open revolutionary mass organisations were forced to go underground under severe repression. Later they were consciously formed even in areas with relatively less repression. Today with the imposition of an All-India ban under POTA, mass organisations in many more areas will be built underground. Many of these organisations are principally functioning in urban areas. Though such secret organisations may be formed in any section of the masses, we have so far, in the urban areas, mainly set them up among the youth, students, and workers.

In urban areas these secret organisations perform the important task of propagating the Party line among various sections of the masses. They are the main vehicles of revolutionary propaganda. Due to the dominant position of the enemy in the cities, the important task of rousing the masses through revolutionary propaganda must be performed through a secret structure. The secret structure of the Party however cannot be the only medium to propagate revolutionary politics. This would limit the extent and depth of the impact of our propaganda. It is therefore necessary to develop separate secret organisational structures among various sections of the people which will carry the message of the Party’s calls to those sections in particular, as well to other sections of the broad masses. This therefore is the principal task of the secret revolutionary mass organisations in the urban areas.

 

It is the task of the secret units and committees to plan the forms and methods of propagating the Party line, the dissemination of Party propaganda, and the formulation and propagation of the revolutionary standpoint on various issues of the day - particularly the issues affecting the section which they are orgainising. These can be done through secret posters, voices, pamphlets, cassettes, booklets, and other forms of propaganda; it can be done through personal contact by the organisation members; it can be done through planned dramatic actions like attacks on imperialist, comprador, and other ruling class targets, etc. Through sustained and effective propaganda, and planned actions, the secret revolutionary mass organisation must aim to reach a position where it influences, guides and even determines the actions and decisions of the non-Party organisations and the masses in its field of operation.

There could be some limitations for the secret mass organisations in organising and mobilising the masses in struggle in a big way. But there are occasions wherein secret mass organisations--though their actual organisation is limited and their influence is significant--could lead important struggles in which lakhs of workers par Secret forms of struggle can and must be used. Si Ka Sa is a example for that.

Secret revolutionary mass organisations may not rally masses in a wide and broad way as that of open revolutionary mass organisations. When an open revolutionary mass organisation is forced to go underground, while changing the work methods from open methods to secret methods by sending exposed cadre to UG, etc., wherever possible, unexposed portion of the organisation’s forces should be shifted so as to work in other types of organisations such as cover organisations, fractional work, legal democratic organisations, and so on.

Secret organisations are the not organs for leading and directing the legal organisations, which are not directly linked to the Party. This will create an unnecessary semi-party form of layer between the Party and such organisations. We should thus also generally avoid forming units of the secret organisation within the open organisation so as to lead the open bodies. This leadership should be done by the Party fractions and cells functioning in the area. The secret organisation performs its revolutionary role by giving calls and conducting propaganda to guide and push the open organisations in the correct direction. However this too should be avoided in areas where the field of fractional or cover work is too small or where the open revolutionary propaganda may lead to exposure that we are doing such work in that area. If it is necessary for the secret organisation members to actively work within the open organisation, they will work as ordinary open members of the organisation, while taking special care to safeguard their political identity. It is better to avoid combining of the tasks of the secret organisation activist and open organisation leader; wherever possible different comrades should be assigned these separate tasks.

Thus the secret mass organisation should serve as vehicle of revolutionary Party propaganda in the urban areas. It is the form of organisation that is suited for implementing this important task.

3.3.1.2 Open Revolutionary Mass Organisations

These are the open and semi-open mass organisations, which openly propagate the politics of New Democratic Revolution and prepare the people for armed struggle. These organisations make use of the available legal opportunities to carry on revolutionary propaganda and agitation openly and try to mobilise anti-imperialist, anti-feudal forces as widely as possible.

Our Party has formed and run such open revolutionary mass organisations since the seventies, particularly in the period following the lifting of the Emergency in 1977. These open organisations were then the main organs of mass mobilisation both in the rural and urban areas. They were the banners under which thousands and lakhs were mobilised, particularly in the struggle areas of AP and Bihar. These mobilizations reached their peak in the ‘open’ periods upto 1986 and during 1991 in AP. They played the role of attracting the broad masses towards the revolution. However with the onset of repression most of these organisations were denied any legal opportunities and were forced to go underground. Direct bans were imposed in AP and Bihar, whereas serious restrictions and surveillance were placed on the organisations in other states. Thus the scope of such organisations has drastically reduced with the rise in repression on our Party throughout the country. Today only very small open bodies exist in some cities.

As is clear from experience, this form of organisation can only be used when the ruling classes, due to various reasons cannot or do not bring repression. This being the case there is limited scope for this type of organisation in the urban areas. Since the enemy generally has the strong upper hand in the urban areas, there are few situations where repression cannot be brought about. Thus as the people’s war sharpens, the scope for legal opportunities is either because of the weakness of the ruling classes due to internal contradictions, or due to a plan of the state to keep watch on our forces or due to some other temporary reason.

Whatever be the reason, we should however evaluate the situation and try to make the best use of the legal opportunities available, while keeping in mind the long-term perspective. This means that if we are to get the opportunity to mobilise the masses in large numbers under our direct banner, we should make use of the chance. At the same time we should expose only a small section of our forces and make sure that the majority of our cadre remain hidden from enemy surveillance. We should on no account indulge in small demonstrations where all our activists are easily identified and even videofilmed for easy targeting in future. We should understand that the period of legal opportunities for open revolutionary organisations will generally be short and we should make the best use of the period for long-term gains. While attempting to mobilise the largest numbers of the masses in struggle on the openly revolutionary platform of the open mass organisation, the Party should concentrate on strengthening and consolidating the elements from these struggles who will serve the long term interests of the protracted people’s war.

Thus we must be clear that the open revolutionary mass organisation cannot be a permanent form of mass organisation in the urban areas. It can and must be utilised in the periods and situations of legal opportunities, and we must be ever alert to make use of such opportunities whenever they arise. However while doing so we must be ever conscious of the long-term interests of the Party and the class struggle and make sure that they do not suffer in order to obtain some short term gains.

3.3.1.3 Fractional Work

Here the Party works through the numerous traditional mass organisations that operate in the urban areas. These traditional mass organisations are the organisations normally set up by the masses to fight for their sectional interests or otherwise fulfill their needs. The Party, through its members or other activists, penetrates such organisations without exposing any links with the Party. Through the activities of the organisation, the masses, while being mobilised for their sectional interests, are attempted to be drawn towards the revolution. This method of organising, if properly conducted, offers the best opportunity for cover work for a long period of time. It is therefore indispensable in areas of severe repression. However it can and should be used in all urban areas because it also provides excellent mass forums for approaching large sections of the people; and if we do not disclose links with the Party we can function for long periods without suffering enemy repression.

Work of this nature can be carried out in various types of organisations. The best organisations are those which are more oriented to struggle, like trade unions, slum and other locality based organisations, youth organisations, unemployed organisations, students associations and unions, women’s organisations, commuter associations, etc. Besides there are also other organisations which are welfare oriented, community based or are self-help organisations - like workers’ cooperatives, cultural organisations, sports clubs and gymnasiums, libraries, bhajan mandals, non-governmental welfare organisations, women’s welfare organisations, caste based and nationality based welfare organisations, minorities’ bodies, etc. There are also many organisations, which emerge on a particular issue, for a particular period, or for a particular festival, etc.

Most of these organisations emerge naturally due to needs of the masses. However many of them will have either direct affiliations or indirect links with ruling class parties and organisations. This however does not need to affect our plan to work among them at the lower levels. Our main considerations while deciding to work in a particular organisation are, firstly, whether the masses are or can be mobilised through that organisation, and secondly, whether the situation of the organisation is such that there is scope to politically influence the masses and draw some elements towards the Party.

Sometimes there are various mass organisations of different affiliations operating in the same area - e.g. multiple trade unions within a single factory. At such time we may have to decide which organisation to work within. This decision again should be broadly according to the onditions given above. We may even decide to work in more than one organisation if it suits our plan for the area. However our general approach would be to oppose the splitting of the unity of the masses and to stand for the unity of all representative mass organisations working in a particular area.

Once we have decided to do fractional work within an organisation we should strive to achieve a leading position in it. This means we should be in a position to influence and guide the decisions of the organisation. If it is necessary to takeover office bearers’ posts in order to achieve this influence, then we should make attempts to do so. This however does not mean that we should always push for PMs to be in office bearers’ posts. If our plans can be fulfilled through non-PMs or even through leaders belonging to other parties it is the best. This will not only better maintain our cover, but also will leave our PMs free to perform other tasks. However if there is no other alternative, and it is the will of themajority, we should not have any ban on even PMs taking up such posts.

Whether we take up office bearers’ posts or not, the important point in fractional work is the skillful exposure of the reactionaries and reformists leading or participating within these organisations. This exposure is essential to draw the masses away from their influence. This must however be done without exposing ourselves to the enemy. The forms of exposure will thus differ depending upon the concrete situation. In vast areas where risk of direct exposure of our fractional work activists is low, we can use propaganda by the secret revolutionary mass organisation or even direct calls by the Party. In smaller areas like a single factory or slum we may have to mainly or only use word-of-mouth propaganda. Sometimes we can create artificial banners like ‘angry workers’, ‘concerned slum dwellers’, etc. for doing our propaganda. Very often we may have to use a combination of various methods. Whatever be the method it should be applied carefully, skillfully, and consistently. It should ensure that the masses are drawn away from the influence of reactionaries and reformists; it should also at the same time ensure that we do not get prematurely exposed and face losses.

There are two types of deviations in fractional work. One is to sink to the level of the reactionaries and reformists leading the organisation and refuse to do any political work in the name of having a long-term approach and preventing exposure. The other is to get rapidly exposed due to our desire to achieve ‘quick results’. Both deviations should be avoided. The main problem in our fractional work so far however has been our lack of a long-term approach. Our mistakes range from excessive revolutionary rhetoric, to simple errors like singing Party songs or distributing Party literature without ascertaining the reliability of those whom we are giving the literature to. Though much experience exists in the international communist movement and though we ourselves have gained many lessons in practice, we have not yet successfully been able to internalise and implement these lessons in our day to day activity. Though we have recognised this error in our documents, we have to yet educate all levels to concretely bring this into practice. The in-depth participation of the leadership is necessary for this.

The crucial point is to achieve the correct balance of making the fullest use of the legal opportunities without crossing the boundaries set by social customs, habits, existing forms of struggle, etc. Our speech and actions should suit the normal functioning of the activists and masses in the particular area. This will of course vary from situation to situation. While it may not be abnormal to resort to gherao among many sections of industrial workers, we may have to restrict to black badges and dharnas for bank employees; while militant anti-dowry and anti-caste struggles may be normal in some areas and states, social norms in other states or areas may be such that they would draw immediate suspicion if we tried to engage in such struggles through cover organisations. We would probably have to restrict ourselves to propaganda in such situations. Thus we should plan our activities, and our issues and forms of struggle according to the concrete situation of the class struggle, so that our Party identity is not quickly suspected and exposed. We should of course not reduce ourselves to mere tails of the masses. We should be skillful enough to remain one step ahead of the masses, without getting exposed. We should use opportunities to push the struggle to the maximum socially acceptable limits, while raising the political consciousness of the masses above their earlier level. We should thus through a long-term approach continuously advance the movement.

Once we have implemented the correct approach and methods in our fractional work it can become a powerful tool in our urban work. This was widely used form of organising in urban work in the Chinese Revolution.

3.3.1.4 Party-formed Cover Mass Organisations

It sometimes becomes necessary for us to directly form mass organisations under cover without disclosing their link with the Party. Mostly, such a need arises due to the absence of any other suitable mass organisation within which we can do fractional work. An example is the case of unorganised workers, where the established trade unions have a limited presence and we often have no option but to set up our own trade union organisation to take up the unorganised workers’ demands. This however is not the only area where we may form cover organisations. In fact, cover organisations can be of as many varied types as the organisations for fractional work we have mentioned in the earlier section. They can range from trade union type struggle organisations to welfare type organisations to issue-based organisations, etc. The methods of mass work too are not very different from the areas of fractional work. The main difference is of course that we do not have the task of exposure, as when working within the reactionary and reformist organisations.

Wherever we form such cover organisations our programme will be of a limited nature, similar to other such organisations working in the area. While utilising these cover organisations to mobilise the masses on their specific demands, we will try to draw the best elements into the Party.

We should be careful (especially in repression areas) not to attract the attention of the state by far exceeding the socially acceptable limits of militancy for that area. For example if the normal weapons used in the area are knives and swords we should not resort to firearms, or we should not normally resort to annihilations in a new area where there has not been any history of such actions.

We have had some experience of building cover organisations now since the last few years. We have committed various mistakes (mentioned in our POR) leading to the quick exposure of our forces in many areas. While learning from these mistakes we should inculcate the correct long term approach to preserve such organisations for a long period of time while making them strong bastions of mass struggle.

3.3.1.5 Legal Democratic Organisations

These are the organisations formed on an explicit political basis with some or all aspects of an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal programme, and with a programme of action and forms of struggle that broadly fall within a legal framework. Some such organisations may be those catering to a particular section like trade unions, student bodies, women’s fronts, caste abolition organisations, nationality organisations, writers’ associations, lawyers’ organisations, teachers’ associations, cultural bodies, etc. Others may be formed with issue-oriented programmes focussing on particular core questions like contract labour system, unemployment and job losses, caste atrocities, communalism, imperialist culture, violence on women, saffronisation of education, corruption, regional backwardness and statehood, etc. The scope of the legal democratic organisation is very wide, xtending to the broad coalitions and alliances formed against repression, globalisation, Hindutva, and right up to the all-encompassing bodies formed with the banners of anti-capitalism or people’s struggles. Such organisations can be formed at various levels - town/city level, district level, state level, regional level, all-India level, or even at the international level.

Our Party has been initiating or participating in the formation of such organisations only since the last few years. Our experience thus has been limited. But rather than experience, the problem has more been the lack of a clear understanding regarding the concept, role and importance to the legal democratic organisation. This has led to spontaneity, a trial and error approach, and mistakes in practice. This has resulted in our organisations remaining within a narrow base of support. It has prevented us from actually implementing in practice the full scope of the legal democratic organisations. It has prevented us from making the fullest use of legal opportunities for the widest mobilisation of the masses.

Actually the legal democratic organisations serve as important means to the Party’s attempts at the political mobilisation of the urban masses. This is because repression normally prevents the open revolutionary mass organisations from functioning. The legal democratic movement is thus the arena where the masses can participate in thousands and lakhs and gain political experience. It thus has a very important role in the revolution, complementary to the armed struggle in the countryside. Revolutionaries in other countries, particularly the Philippines, have participated within and utilised the legal democratic movement very effectively. In India too there is excellent scope to participate within, build, promote and develop legal democratic organisations and movement to advance the interests of revolution. The masses suffering under the yoke of imperialism and feudalism, regularly participate in countless small or big, militant, dayto- day struggles. These are led by innumerable grassroots level organisations and leaders with a restricted perspective and functioning within a legal framework. It is these struggles and organisations that provide the concrete material basis for the setting up of broad democratic organisations. And it is through the legal democratic movement that these struggles are brought out of their narrow confines, are unified, and gain political direction.

Thus it is necessary that our Party in the urban areas should give considerable importance to the task of participating in and building up a strong and broad legal democratic movement. We should join, form, or join in the formation of legal democratic organisations of various types - sectional, issue-oriented or broad-based; depending on necessity and feasibility, this can be at any level ranging from the town/area level to the all-India/international level. While taking up this task and allocating orces for it however, we must also guard against a tendency to overemphasize one-sidedly the sweeping mass mobilisations and struggles at the cost of the central tasks of consolidation and party building. The legal democratic movement itself too can grow from strength to strength and remain on the correct political course only if we concentrate sufficiently and simultaneously on developing the secret Party core within it. Thus while giving due importance to the legal movement, we should take care to maintain the correct dialectical balance between the needs and importance of both the legal and illegal work, the open and the secret organisation.

Maintaining relations between the open and secret also means strict

adherence to tech precautions. This means protecting the Party leadership from exposure and danger, as well as protecting the legal leadership from being exposed as belonging to our Party. Meetings between open and secret leadership should as far as possible be avoided and guidance should normally be through written communication and other means which should be done by protecting the Party link. When a meeting has to take place, proper care should be taken that the legal comrades are not ollowed. Similarly errors like meeting public figures in front of entire squads thus directly exposing their links, should be avoided.

Generally we should avoid exposing our Party’s influence within a particular organisation, as well as the identity of our PMs and other comrades close to us. However as its activities expand and intensify, we cannot prevent the enemy from growing suspicious, launching surveillance and indulging in harassment. However, this does not mean that they will be able to easily launch full-scale repression and bring a ban. As long as the organisation adheres to the principles of legal democratic functioning, and as long as it has a broad enough base of support, it will be difficult for the state to close it down.

The crucial central point in this however is the broadness of the organisation. If we set up a narrow organisation limited only to our Party forces, we cannot expect it to continue for long even if we use all tech precautions to conceal our identity. On the other hand, if broad sections of the masses are rallied and if a wide range of non-Party forces are united, the enemy will not be in such an easy position to suppress fully. Even if they launch attacks they risk the possibility of still wider protests and support.

However in order to achieve broad unity, it is necessary for us to have such an approach in whatever legal democratic effort we participate in. We should broaden our efforts far beyond the revolutionary camp and attempt to involve and unite with a wide spectrum of struggling forces on various fronts. A minimum political understanding for any organisation should be the basis for our unification efforts. Our basic condition should be serious adherence to a minimum political programme. We should in fact target such organisations and individuals that are seriously committed to struggle and try to involve them in any effort at broad unity. If we have such an approach and are able to allocated suitable forces we will definitely be able to soon achieve much success. It is through such efforts that we will be able to see the legal democratic movement emerge as a powerful urban force, complementing the rural armed struggle and helping to advance the revolution throughout the country.

3.3.2 Organising at the Place of Residence

Though the workplace organisation is the primary organisation of the workers, we should also pay attention to organise the workers within the slums and localities. Through this we can get contact with new workers from various industries, we can draw the families of the workers into the movement, and we can organise the semi-proletariat and other sections of the urban poor living in the slums and poor localities.

In slums and other poor localities there are already numerous traditional organisations in existence. Constantly living in precarious conditions, the urban poor naturally come together to help each other and unite within organisations to fight for their rights, to secure better living conditions, to solve problems among themselves and to better organise their social and cultural activities. The common types of traditional organisations are slum-dwellers organisations, basti or chawl committees, mahila mandals, youth clubs, sports clubs, cultural bodies, committees for various festivals like Ganesh festival, Durga puja, Ambedkar Jayanti, etc. There are also some organisations that are peculiar to certain regions, cities, and areas. Since such organisations offer the best cover we should try to make the best use of these traditional organisations and mainly work from within them. Even if there is a need to form new legal organisations, we should normally give them the forms already existing among the masses.

Struggle issues are a regular feature of locality work, particularly slum work. Fights for basic amenities like water, electricity, toilets and sewerage, against corruption and exploitation of ration shop owners, adulterators and black marketeers, against slumlords, goonda gangs and other lumpens, and against demolitions are some of the regular issues. We should organise the struggles on these issues through the local committees and the slum-dweller organisations. As women and unemployed youth play a leading role in most of these struggles, the mahila mandals and youth clubs should also be involved and struggles can even be led under their banners.

Besides the above struggle issues and organisations, we should also pay attention to the welfare and cultural needs of the masses. We should make use of cultural bodies to promote democratic culture. We can also initiate the setting up of libraries and reading rooms that can provide progressive education. We should also pay attention to solving the contradictions among the people. Traditional forms like panchayats should be transformed and rid of feudal and exploitative practices.

We should always propagate and educate against the activities of the Hindu fascists. In areas prone to communal tensions we should set up permanent all community peace committees and open self-defence teams. Similar suitable steps may also be taken up in areas of caste or nationality based tensions. Self-defence should also be organised against the goondas and lumpens. If such teams are well organised, they can even play a role in leading the mass resistance at times of demolition.

A problem peculiar to slum work is the problem of imperialist funded NGOs. They are today in existence in almost all the slums of the main cities of the country. We should educate the slum masses and particularly the activists about the sinister role of such organisations and the agencies financing them. We should particularly expose them when they stand in the path of the people’s struggles. However if such organisations come forward for struggles we can have issue-based unity with them. In situations of repression we can also work within them.

Through the traditional mass organisations, we can and should organise political propaganda, but it will be of a limited nature. For higher level of propaganda and mobilisation we should use the legal democratic organisation banners or can even affiliate some of the traditional organisations to these legal democratic organisations. Thus the issues of the slum can be broadened and linked to the broader fight against globalisation and imperialism.

For propaganda on direct Party positions however we should use secret organisations like the secret revolutionary workers’ organisation and the secret revolutionary youth organisation. They should however only be used while keeping in mind the precautions to prevent exposure of our locality work. Thus if the slum and locality work is very small and narrow, we should avoid propaganda by the secret organisations in such

an area.

We should consolidate the activists emerging from the struggle first into basti activist groups and then into Party candidate cells and full cells. The basti activist groups, the Party cells and the basti Party committees are the cores for planning and leading all the activities and struggles in the bastis, for political propaganda and education, and for recruiting new members into the Party.

The situation of the urban poor in the slums and poor localities is worsening continuously. The slum population of India today stands at 4.1 cores, spread in 607 towns. The largest mega city, Mumbai, has 49% of its population in the slums. Our Party has so far paid limited attention to the organising of this section. Other revolutionary parties, particularly the Peru Communist Party (PCP) have been particularly successful in this respect. In fact the shantytowns of Lima have been the strongholds of the revolutionaries for a long period. We too should work at creating such strongholds in India’s major cities.

3.3.3 Party-Building

Mass struggles and mass organisations are absolutely necessary for preparing the masses for revolution. They however are not sufficient by themselves without the conscious consolidation and development of the vanguard - the Party. Thus the best elements that emerge through the struggles should go through a process of politicisation in struggle, ideological and political education in activist groups, study circles and political schools, and consolidation into candidate and party cells. This process is relatively a slow painstaking process as compared to the spontaneous sweeping element of the mass movement. Consolidation cannot emerge by itself spontaneously without a conscious programme for it and consistent monitoring and implementation at all levels. In urban areas the Party cell is the crucial body for systematic and serious Partybuilding. However all higher bodies must constantly follow-up and pay attention to this task

In the urban areas the main concentration has to be on the consolidation of the vanguard elements from the industrial proletariat class. This is doubly important considering the present weak working class composition of our Party. We have to thus concentrate on the struggles and organisations of the working class, both at the work place and in the bastis, and have a target of drawing the largest numbers of the best members of the working class into the party. Besides the working class, we should give importance to the consolidation from the semiproletariat, the students, the intellectuals and other sections of the petty bourgeoisie.

3.3.3.2 Activist Groups

The secret activist group is a crucial unit in the Party-building and recruitment process. It is the preliminary organisational form for consolidation of the most active and sincere elements emerging from the class struggle. It is the unit through which the activities of its members are given political direction, through which they receive ideological and political education, through which their life decisions are politicised, and through which they are chosen to become members of the Party.

The activist group may be formed at the workplace - factory, mine, industrial estate, shift, department, section, office, branch, or any other level which is a unit for organising; it may be formed at the place of residence - the slum, chawl, street, society, or any other level which is a unit for organising; it may be formed in schools, colleges, or other institutions; and where the organising is based on a particular section, the activist group can be formed at the level suitable for that section.

The main basis for selection into the activist group is activity. All activist group members should be regular, or prepared to be regular, in activity. Other criteria are broad sympathy to revolutionary politics and steadfastness to the cause and interests of the section of the masses who are being organised.

The activist group will be built from the advanced elements within the masses. It should be formed as soon as possible after a certain level of activity. Depending on the concrete situation the group can consist of 3 to 7 members. Normally at least one capable PM should be given the responsibility for leading a particular activist group. This however should

normally be without disclosing his/her identity as a PM.

The tasks and responsibilities of an activist group will differ concretely according to the field of work. However for all organising among the basic masses these responsibilities can be broadly divided into 3 categories. Firstly there is the task of guiding and transforming the organisations of the masses into bodies genuinely representing the masses interests. If no mass organisations exist it should try to form such organisations. Secondly the group should be given the task of politicising the broad masses. Thirdly it should organise their self-defence. These responsibilities should be discussed in the activist group and concretely allocated among the members.

While leading the group in the above responsibilities, it is the task of the PM in charge to conduct the ideological and political education of the group. While classes and joint study should be conducted, great importance should also be given to other more flexible methods like informal discussion, films, individual reading, etc. As the group developes, where feasible, there should be collective discussion on personal and family problems and this should be used to help the members to take political decisions in their personal life.

Through the above process some or all or even none of the activist group members may develop to become candidate members and members of the Party. This will lead to the formation of a cell in the same area where the activist group had been operating. Once such a cell has been formed, the activist group should be dissolved or reconstituted without exposing the cell-formation to the non-PMs. As far as possible an activist group and party cell should not simultaneously exist having parallel responsibility for the same unit at the same level - e.g. there should not be an activist group and a cell simultaneously for the same department within a factory, though there may be a cell for the whole factory and an activist group for the department at the same time.

Thus the activist group is a transitory form of organisation. It’s purpose is to facilitate the consolidation of the advanced sections of the masses and build them into the vanguard. If it is conducted in a systematic and planned manner it can play a crucial role in the Party-building process.

3.3.3.3 Political Education

Urban work activists and cadre function within the areas dominated by the enemy and are thus faced much more by alien class trends and the ideological influence of the bourgeoisie. Being normally distant from the zones of armed struggle there is a tendency to swing to extremes, deviating from our basic line. In situations when the urban movement is low there is the tendency towards despondency and lack of confidence in the revolutionary line. When the urban movement is on the upswing, there is the scope to overplay the importance of urban work and give less importance to the rural armed struggle. Such deviations can be prevented and rectified through continuous ideological and political education. There

is thus always the need for solid and systematic education in Marxism- Leninism-Maoism and the line of protracted people’s war. This is necessary not only for advancing the movement but also for fighting off the degenerative influence of the reactionaries.

Despite this need, political education in the urban Party is a much neglected area. Urban work is mostly conducted by independent organisers who remain for long periods out of the contact of the higher committees. In the absence of systematic planning and follow up, the task of political education is thus left to the capabilities and initiative at the lower level. There is also thus a greater possibility of being caught up in the urgencies of the immediate practical work and neglecting the long-term ideological requirements. Another problem is the tech problem of conducting classes and schools in the city. While risks from the state can be reduced by better secrecy methods, there still remains the problem of conducting numerous small batches to prevent exposure of comrades working in different areas. This problem of exposure can be sometimes reduced by mixing comrades from distant towns or even from different states, but this cannot always be the solution.

All this however implies that political education tasks in the city cannot be fulfilled without the active intervention of the higher committees. Courses, methods of conducting schools and taking classes, tech methods, training of teachers, plans for education at different levels - all require the personal attention of the higher committee members.

At the higher levels of AC and above it would be necessary, for the present, to systematically implement the programmes and courses decided by SCOPE. However in the future it will be necessary to develop special courses and training to particularly cater to the needs of urban work. One constant need, peculiar to urban work, would be that of developing the numerous teachers to take the number of small batches that urban work requires.

While thorough and continuous political education at the higher levels is the key to proper Party leadership, political education within the mass organisations and at the cell level is necessary to provide a sound foundation. The task of political education at these levels is all the more important in the urban areas because the normal area of activity for such comrades are the fractional and cover mass organisations where they cannot disclose their identity and where they have to constantly function among non-party forces and even ruling class elements.

Mass organisational education should use open forms of mass education for all topics permissible without attracting the attention of the state. We should try to adopt and adapt all locally prevalent forms used by the ruling classes and other classes. These can be like libraries, street corner reading posts and other such means which can be used to disseminate progressive literature among other general books; lecture series during festivals, debate competitions, elocution competitions, etc. where our comrades express progressive views; public speaking courses, personality development courses, etc. with political topics included in the syllabus; mass organisation training camps, and the like. The level of political education possible through such methods will of course be very low, but it is very essential to be conducted on a regular basis to keep up a political atmosphere among even the more backward sections within the mass organisation. For the more advanced sections we have of course to use different forums and methods - e.g. the activist group.

Political education for the activist group, candidate cells and party cells, will have to be planned at the level of the responsible committees. While education materials provided by SCOPE should be the basis, the committees should also select materials, which will suit the local urban conditions and also the particular sections being educated. While planning it must be kept in mind that the urban education system needs to be as decentralised as possible. This means that the courses and materials hould

be such that they can be easily implemented and used by the responsible organisers and PMs who will finally be performing the task of teachers. Where necessary they have to be given the attention and help to enable them to put the plan into implementation.

A well-planned decentralised political education system, with sufficient teachers and regular follow-up from the committee is thus what every urban area requires.

3.3.4 Party Structure

The question of the Party structure in the urban areas presents quite different problems from that in the rural areas where our Party is based. These relate to the problem of building and running stable structures, the continuity of party leadership, the coordination between open and secret work, between lower and higher bodies, and between the city organisation and the leadership based in the rural areas. We cannot resolve these problems without the close attention and study by the higher level bodies and the development of concrete and practical solutions. We also require however a broad common approach on the objectives, tasks and methods to be adopted for building and advancing the urban Party structure.

The essential principle forming the basis of our Party structure, particularly in the urban area, is political centralisation combined with organisational decentralisation. This means that all PMs and all bodies, particularly at the lower level, should have solid ideological-political foundations, so that they are able to independently find their bearings and take the correct organisational decisions according to the political line of the Party. This is particularly important in the urban areas because of the technical difficulties of maintaining close and constant links between the secret higher bodies and those at the lower levels engaged in direct open work. This is also important because urban work often demands immediate and quick responses to the events of the day. With rapid advances in electronic communication and media, delays of days and sometimes even hours in politically reacting to major events can hinder the impact that our Party can have on the urban movement. This thus depends on the strength of the bodies that form the foundation of our urban Party structure - the cells and the lower level committees - as well as on the Party fractions that link the Party with the mass organisations.

3.3.4.1 Party Cell

The urban Party cell can be formed on the basis of unit of production

- for workers this could be factory, shop, department, section, shift, production line, industrial estate, etc. for students and middle class employees it could be the college, school, institution, office, etc.; the cell can also be formed on geographical basis (i.e. the place of residence) - this would be the slum, chawl, street, society, etc. Wherever the number of PMs in a particular unit (e.g. factory) is less that three they can be combined with adjoining units to form a cell. However this should not be done indiscriminately in the urban areas as this would lead to unnecessary exposure. Where the work is integrated a common cell may be formed. In other cases it is better to wait for further recruitment before formation

of a cell.

The cell is the body leading all other organisational units within its sphere of responsibility. It performs its basic tasks under the leadership of the next higher committee. The basic tasks of the urban cell include organising the masses, politicising them, educating the advanced elements and recruiting them into the party, and preparing its members and other activists to go to the countryside to work for the success of the agrarian revolution.

The cell should develop its own secret network of shelters and meeting places. As far as possible meetings should not be held in the areas where the members do their political work among the masses. Generally cell members should not be transferred from cell to cell as this would lead to unnecessary exposure.

Where there are at least three PRs functioning in an area and are known to each other, a Professional Revolutionary Cell (PRC) may be formed. The PRC however should not play the role of a Party committee and become a centre for planning the activity of the areas of all the PRs. This would result in unnecessary exposure of various structures and area