Unity Conference of BKMS and KSS

Volume 1, No. 6, August 2000

—Bhanusen

The Biplabi Krishak Mazur Samity (BKMS) and the Krishak Sangram Samity (KSS) united through an unity conference that was held from 2nd June to 4th June at Nadia. The name of the united organisation is Mazur Krishak Sangram Samity (MKSS). Since a long time these two organisations have been organising the peasants’ movement as a part of the New Democratic revolution. The BKMS was organising the peasants at Bankura and Midnapur while the KSS was active among the peasants of Nadia, Maldha and Murshidabad. The unity between these two organisations is very important because it will carry on the relentless struggle to put an end to all sorts of exploitation of the peasants. The united organisations will carry on the struggle in the path beaconed by the armed Naxalbari peasant uprising of 1967. On 2nd June , the first day of the 3 days conference, an open rally and meeting was organised at the library ground at the Krishnanagar town hall. About 2500 peasants including common people, participated in the rally. Later, the open meeting was presided over by comrade Akram and Comrade Amiya Kundu. Comrade Ruhul Amin and Comrade Karabi delivered speeches on behalf of the KSS followed by the representatives of different areas. The speakers described how, nowadays, peasants are under the clutches of feudal exploitation, how the government is forcing the total ruination of the peasants through the World Trade Organisation. The speakers pledged to re-establish the revolutionary tradition of West Bengal. Revolutionary songs and dramas were performed by the activists. The mass meeting came to an end as the people who gathered at the meeting site vowed to develop the peasant movement in line with the revolutionary peasant movement of Andhra, Bihar and Dandakaranya.

Procession of the MKSS Activists

On 3rd June at Dompukur of Chapra Police Station the closed door session of the conference resumed. The conference hall was named after martyr comrade Dhananjay Halder from the turbulent 70s. At first the father of a martyred comrade offered a garland to the martyrs’ column followed by the delegates of different areas and fraternal organisations. The elder brother of a martyred comrade, a delegate of the conference, hoisted the red flag. The representatives observed one minute silence as homage to the martyrs. Later the conference began.

A 3 member presidium was elected to preside over the conference. Comrades Akram, Amiya and Karabi comprised the presidium. In the first day of the session the delegates of different areas put forward their respective work reports. In the next half, the chief guest comrade Niranjan Basu delivered a precise and concrete message. Comrade Basu is a veteran communist (83 years) connected with the movement for a long 60 years. He enriched the session by an enthusiastic summing up of the past. He stressed on: (a) to establish the leadership of the landless peasants on the peasant movement, (b) half of the sky, i.e women, should be involved in the various movements, including the peasant movement. He wished that there will be a resurgence of the revolutionary past by the peasants who are ready for the supreme sacrifice, and build a massive peasant movement.

The West Bengal state committee of the CPI(ML)[People’s War] sent a letter to the peasant delegates of the conference. The letter stressed the need for the building of a revolutionary peasant movement by taking lessons from the previous history of peasant movements.

Later a discussion started on the programme and constitution. After a detailed, lively discussion the draft was passed unanimously. Some immediate programmes were taken from the conference itself. The delegates of Midnapur, Nadia, Murshidabad and Maldah put forward a summing up of their respective areas of peasant struggles. Finally, an executive committee of the United Peasant Organisation, Mazur Krishak Sangram Samity (MKSS), was elected. The conference came to an end on an optimistic note of building up of a powerful revolutionary peasant movement in the future.