Date : FromLiberation,
September 1998
Transcription :CPI-ML(L)
HTML Markup : Salil Sen for MIA, November 2007
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[From an article published in Lokyuddh to commemorate the martyrdom of Comrade Charu Mazumdar on 28 July 1972. Self-translated excerpts of the article was published in English in Liberation, September 1998.]
Comrade CM had drawn an important line of demarcation between the cadres of the revisionist and the revolutionary parties. Whereas the former keep on waiting for the instructions from above, the latter take their independent initiative and creatively implement the instructions that come from the leadership. For this a revolutionary cadre must be of an enterprising type and he/she should have a firm command over the situation in his/her area. This however is not possible without a deep-going social investigation. Comrade Mao had once remarked that "no investigation, no right to speak". Without questioning the ideas that repeatedly clash with the practice at the ground level, without asking 'How' and 'Why' on every phenomenon, how can human knowledge move forward? How can new heights be scaled both in theory and practice with 'yes sir' kind of communist cadres?
The other important aspect of work style is the style of concentrated work. We shall have to continuously expand the frontiers of the mass movement, take all possible political initiatives at the state and national levels. All this is beyond dispute. But if one has to achieve any concrete results, some particular area will have to be concentrated upon. Otherwise all efforts may go in vain and the practice will not be raised to any higher levels.
In the recent elections we saw that in areas where concentrated work was going on we performed better than earlier. On the contrary, where, in Mao's words, the work style of 'visiting the garden on a horseback' was being followed, our performance went down.
You may be in-charge of an area or a mass organisation, there must be a particular aspect to your practice apart from the general aspect. This particular aspect is virtually your laboratory where as a scientist you undertake ever-newer experiments, test your ideas at the level of practice and then generalise your conclusions. From general to particular and again from particular to general, this scientific work style is the Marxist work style.
Along with the general political and the agitational mobilisations, putting special emphasis on new elements continuously emerging in the course of mass movements, bringing them within the periphery of Party education and the Party organisation, building Party activist groups and the Party branches at the ground level and activating them are the essential components of the communist style of work. A work style in which these elements are missing is nothing but revisionist work style based on the assumption that 'movement is everything but the aim is nothing'. Ever broadening the scope of the movement but at the same time activating the Party organisation at the grass-roots level -- unity of these two apparent opposites is the essence of the communist style of work.
Our march towards organising the Party at the national level and developing a strong and dynamic Party infrastructure at the lower levels will be the real tribute to Comrade CM.