The 22nd state conference of CPI(M), Tamil Nadu was held at Tuticorin from February 17-20, 2018 with a promise to take the movement forward in the coming days. The conference began with the receiving of Red Flag brought from Chennai by P Isakkimuthu. Similarly the torches brought from many places of Tamil Nadu in memory of Venmani martyrs, in memory of VO Chidambaram (who fought the British by operating a shipping service from Tuticorin), eminent Tamil Poet Bharathi, Sankaralingam (who laid his life to change the name of the state as Tamil Nadu), A Nallasivan and S Balavinayagam, TR Subramaniam, Somu and Sembu (martyrs of student movement), R Mahaligam, KS Amalraj and S Poovalingam was received by senior leaders of the Party in Tuticorin district.

Party veteran leader V Meenakshisundaram hoisted the Red Flag amid slogans renting the air. Then, led by veteran leader and freedom fighter N Sankaraiah (one of the two surviving Central Committee members who came out of CPI to form CPI(M) in 1964 – the other being VS Achuthanandan of Kerala), Party leaders and delegates paid homage to the martyrs. P Sampath presided over the open session in which the reception committee chairman K Kanagaraj welcomed the delegates. The session began with the condolence resolution placed by S Noor Mohammed.

Prakash Karat, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member,  formally inaugurating the conference, pointed out that it is our duty to organise people to launch struggles and movements against the present bourgeois-landlord society. He exhorted the delegates to launch struggles against the neoliberal policies being implemented in the country along with the struggle against Hindutva to isolate the communal and rightist forces. To take up this task, he said that we shall have to increase the independent strength of the Party and develop Left unity. Only through such efforts, we can organise other democratic and secular forces. Karat reminded the delegates that the aim before us is to build a Left and Democratic Front.

In the open session, R Mutharasan, CPI state secretary, S Kumarasamy, CPI(M-L) Liberation state secretary, A Rengasamy, SUCI(C) state secretary greeted the conference and stressed the importance of building a strong Left alternative in the country to fight against neoliberal policies as well as communal forces.

Thereafter, G Ramakrishnan, CPI(M) Tamil Nadu state secretary and Polit Bureau member, placed the political-organisational report before the delegates for discussion. The report, while explaining the activities carried out by the Party during the last three years, also outlined the tasks to be taken up in the coming years in the state. 98 delegates, including 17 women, took part in the discussions on the report which went on for about 10 hours.

On the third day, A K Padmanabhan, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member while greeting the conference reminded the delegates that though the right to form association was recognised in 1926, over the years the Indian bourgeoisie, emboldened by the successive governments’ neoliberal and globalisation policies, has started curtailing workers’ rights. Recently we witnessed how the state government sought to crush the transport workers struggle, he said and added that the peasantry in Tamil Nadu is also left in lurch. He underlined the importance of building the unity of workers, peasants and middle class organisations to launch mammoth joint movements and stressed on the task to take it forward.

While greeting the conference, N Sankaraiah who has the credit of attending all the 22 state conferences, has outlined the path the communist movement has taken in Tamil Nadu and recalled the role played by Comrade M Singaravelar who hoisted the Red Flag in 1923 in Chennai and who also presided over the first foundation conference of CPI at Kanpur in 1925 in spearheading the ideology in the erstwhile Madras presidency. He also reminded the delegates about the work and sacrifices made by  comrades like P Ramamurthy, P Jeevanandam, P Sundarayya, B Srinivasa Rao in building the Party in this part of the country. Underlining the importance of democratic centralism to execute the tasks before the Party, he called upon the young generations to remember the history of the Party and to put forward only the political views of the Party in social media and not their personal views. This will help to spread the ideology afar.

In the evening, summing up the discussion of the delegates, G Ramakrishnan explained the role played by the Party in carrying out the tasks outlined by the 21st conference. He also outlined the efforts made by the Party in forming the Peoples’ Welfare Front. Stressing the importance of having a strong unity of thought and action within the Party to make it as a strong political force in the state, Ramakrishnan said that the newly elected state committee will work hard to achieve the following goals during the next three years: to increase its independent strength by building strong movements of class and mass organisations; to expand the class organisations to take up the task of building a powerful force against the present bourgeois-landlord system and to build a Left and Democratic Front in Tamil Nadu by leveraging the strength achieved through the actions taken up while executing the above two tasks. With this, Ramakrishnan called upon the delegates and the Party members to take forward these tasks among the people and strengthen CPI(M).

On the final day, a new state committee with 79 members was elected, keeping one seat vacant, which in turn elected K Balakrishnan as the new secretary and a 15-member state secretariat. The conference also elected 50 delegates for the ensuing 22nd Party Congress to be held in April at Hyderabad.

Credential committee report of the conference has stated that out of 641 delegates elected for the conference, 609 participated out of which 109 were women (17 per cent). Among the delegates the eldest was N Sankaraiah, who also has the credit of longest period of Party life (since 1940), jail life (8 years) and underground life (3 years). There were two youngest delegates each in men (both 19 years old) and women (both 21 years old) category.

After the election, Sitaram Yechury, CPI(M) general secretary, addressing the delegates reminded them that Tamil Nadu had a long tradition of great revolutionaries like Singaravelu who had the distinction of raising the Red Flag in 1923 by organising the first ever May Day rally in India. He also presided over the first ever conference of CPI in 1925 at Kanpur. He called upon the delegates to take forward the call of the 21st Party Congress to build a Left and Democratic Front across the country as an alternative force to the present neoliberal policies followed by the successive governments.

Thereafter Yechury flagged off the red volunteers march across the streets of Tuticorin in which thousands of Party members and sympathizers from across Tamil Nadu participated. As the rally concluded at the meeting venue, he addressed a mammoth crowd gathered over the huge ground where he reminded the audience about the dangerous path pursued by the BJP led by Narendra Modi in mortgaging the sovereignty of our country as well as giving away country’s wealth  to  a select few capitalists. Recounting the power of Red Flag, Yechury asserted that no authoritarian/fascist force can subsume communist ideology which was proved in the case of Hitler and Indira Gandhi. Similar will be the fate of Narendra Modi, who tries to dislodge the Left Front government in Tripura by hook or crook. The people of Tripura as well as the working class and the peasantry will give a fitting reply to the nefarious designs of Hindutva forces, he said.