Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist)

The Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist)' or SUCI(C), previously called the Socialist Unity Centre of India and "Socialist Unity Centre" is a communist party in India. The party was founded by Shibdas Ghosh, Nihar Mukherjee and others in 1948.

Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist)
SecretaryProvash Ghosh
Founded24 April 1948
Headquarters48 Lenin Sarani
Kolkata, India
700013
22°33′49.9″N 88°21′20.1″E
NewspaperProletarian Era (English) Ganadabi (Bengali)
Student wingAll India Democratic Students Organisation
Youth wingAll India Democratic Youth Organisation
Women's wingAll India Mahila Sanskritik Sanghathan
Labour wingAll India United Trade Union Centre
Peasant's wingAll India Krishak Khet Majdoor Sangathan
IdeologyCommunism
Anti-Revisionism
Marxism-Leninism
Shibdas Ghosh Thought
ColoursRed  
Seats in Lok Sabha0
Seats in Rajya Sabha0
Seats in 
0 / 295
(West Bengal Legislative Assembly)
Website
www.sucicommunist.org

Ideology

SUCI(C) is a communist party in India,[1] and follows a Marxist-Leninist ideological line formulated by Shibdas Ghosh. The party rejects political ideas such as glasnost and perestroika as revisionist, and claims to uphold the original intent of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and the thoughts of Ghosh.[2]

SUCI(C) holds that India is a capitalist country with monopoly capitalism and imperialist trends. In line with that analysis, the party works toward a socialist revolution, rather than a people's democratic revolution (like the Communist Party of India (Marxist)), a national democratic revolution (like the Communist Party of India) or a new democratic revolution (like the Naxalites).[3]

SUCI(C) leadership emphasises the qualitative upliftment of party cadres, workers of mass-organisations and supporters, by both theoretical study of Marxism-Leninism-Shibdas Ghosh Thought and the practical application of such knowledge in the day-to-day life of party workers. In various publications of the party, SUCI upholds the proletarian cultural standard, which, according to the leadership, should be achieved by the cadres, before they can lead the masses in the Socialist Revolution.

The 1st SUCI Party Congress was held in Kolkata in 1988. The 2nd party congress was held from 11 to 17 November 2009 in Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi attended by thousands of participants from 22 states and observers from several foreign countries. The current political line of the party was formulated in the 2nd party congress.[4][5][6] The party's name was changed from Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) to Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) [SUCI (C)] at the second party congress.[7]

Parliamentary politics

From its inception, SUCI took part in parliamentary elections and was part of the United Front governments in West Bengal in 1967–1969 and 1969–1970 together with CPI(M) and others. The party had a Member of Parliament (MP) in the 4th Lok Sabha from Jaynagar.[8][9] The SUCI had presence in the legislative assemblies of Assam, Bihar and Orissa at various times. In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections SUCI launched 56 candidates, 30 of them from West Bengal. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections SUCI declared 40 candidates from 12 states.[10]

As of 2019, Tarun Mandal, representing Jaynagar in West Bengal, was party's sole and last MP. After 2014 Lok Sabha and 2016 Vidhan Sabha elections, it has no MP or MLA from India.[11]

Current situation

SUCI(C) members live in communes wherein they lead a simple life style. Day-to-day upkeep of the commune and the well being of the children of party members living in the communes are taken care by the shared efforts of party members. Major income of the party is from box collection in the streets and house to house collection; members who are employed hand in their salaries to the party. The party contests elections with the money collected through this transparent fund raising method.[12][13][14]

The stronghold of the party is in the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, in areas such as Jaynagar Majilpur where it controls certain municipalities.

SUCI(C) is actively involved in the ongoing anti-Special Economic Zone movements in India. The most notable of these movements that the party is active in are:

The party has formed a political front in West Bengal with All India Trinamool Congress to fight the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on an agreement that the alliance will maintain equidistance from the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.[28][29]

The party won the Jaynagar Lok Sabha constituency in the 2009 general elections with a majority of 53,676 votes.[30]

Shibdas Ghosh, Founder General Secretary of SUCI
Nihar Mukherjee Memorial Meeting held in Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata on 3 March 2010


Campaigns

The Gherao principle was introduced as a formal mode of protest in the trade union sector by Subodh Banarjee, who was a central committee member of SUCI and the PWD and Labor Minister in the 1967 and 1969 United Front Governments in West Bengal, respectively.[31][32][33]

One of the major campaigns of the party in West Bengal has been its agitations against the educational policy of the Left Front state government. The decision of the Left Front government to remove the English language from primary education sparked a mass movement led by the SUCI for the reinstatement of English.[34][35][36]

Below is a chronological list of campaigns organised by the SUCI(C) in West Bengal:

  • 1953: Tram fare protest movement was organised by the SUCI.[37]
  • 1954: In 1954, the SUCI organised the teachers' movement.[37]
  • 1956: Banga bihar sanjukti birodhi andolan.[37]
  • 1958: Students' movement was organised by the party.[37]
  • 1959: The SUCI organised food movement.[37]
  • 1967: Another food movement was led by the party.[37]
  • 1979: The SUCI organised a movement against various decisions taken by the Government of India.[37]
  • 1980: The SUCI organised Bhasha andolan against the Government of West Bengal which continues till now.[37]
  • 1983: A movement was led by the party against bus fare hike.[37]
  • 1988: First Party Congress in Kolkata (24–29 March)
  • 1990: Another movement was organised by the 13 Left Parties [COI(ML), CPI(ML)ND and others] along with SUCI against the Government of West Bengal for bus fare hike and a Bangla bandh in September to protest against the death of Madhai Halder, a party supporter killed in police firing at the Esplanade on 31 August 1990. This was the first bandh.[37]
  • 1991: A protest was led by the organisation against electricity price hike.[37]
  • 1991: The SUCI organised a movement against the state education policy.[37]
  • 1998: Bangla bandh on 3 February in order to bring back English at the primary education. This was the second bandh.[37]
  • 2000: The SUCI organised a protest movement demanding English as a compulsory subject at primary education.[37]
  • 2002: A protest was organised against the decision of the Government of West Bengal to increase hospital fee and the increase in electricity charges by the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation and West Bengal State Electricity Board. This was the third bandh.[37]
  • 2006-ongoing: The Anti SEZ movements in Singur[15][17] and Nandigram.[18][19][20][21][22]
  • 2008: 21 12 April-hour statewide shutdown in West Bengal jointly called by the Trinamool Congress and SUCI.[38][39]
SUCI mural in Kolkata, announcing 'SUCI day' rally on 24 April

Leadership

Provash Ghosh is the current leader of the party. He was elected as the General Secretary of the party by the central committee on 4 March 2010.[40]

After Shibdas Ghosh's death in 1976, Nihar Mukherjee, a co-founder of SUCI, became the General Secretary.[2] Mukherjee died of cardiac arrest on 18 February 2010 at Kolkata.[41]

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The central committee members of the party are:

  • Provash Ghosh (General Secretary & Politburo member)
  • Manik Mukherjee (Politburo member)
  • Asit Bhattacharya (Politburo member)
  • Ranjit Dhar (Politburo member)
  • Yakub Pailan (died on 14 June 2014)
  • Debaprasad Sarkar
  • Kalyan Chowdhury
  • C.K Lukose (Politburo member; died on 13 Feb 2019)
  • K. Radhakrishna
  • Gopal Kundu
  • Soumen Bose
  • Satyawan
  • Sankar Saha
  • Chhaya Mukherjee

The incumbent central committee and politburo was elected in the 2nd party congress.[42]

Secretaries of the State Committees of the party are:

Secretaries of the State Organising Committees are:

The MP of the party is:

The MLA of the party is:

Former Legislators of SUCI(C)

The former ministers of SUCI in West Bengal:

The former MPs of the party were:

The former MLAs of the party were:[52][53]

Mass organisations

The principal mass organisations of SUCI(C) are:

Publications

The central organ of SUCI(C) is the Proletarian Era, an English forthnighly published from Kolkata.

Cover of Proletarian Era

The state committees of the party publishes:

Criticism

They are often criticized by the other Left parties for supporting a nondemocratic anti-communist party like TMC, to defeat the Left Government. After breaking the alliance with TMC, Provash Ghosh said in a press statement, "The CPI(M) government had turned 'anti-people' therefore it was extremely important to end their 34-year tenure in the state", he also added, "Our main target of dislodging the CPI(M) government has been achieved, and we are no longer an ally of TMC. We are ready to sit in opposition".[55]

References
  1. Why SUCI is the only genuine communist party in India
  2. A brief introduction to the Socialist Unity Centre of India
  3. SUCI critique on Naxal movement
  4. India Vision News Clip about SUCI's 2nd Party Congress (In Malayalam)
  5. India Vision News Clip – SUCI Party Congress inauguration (in Malayalam)
  6. News&contentId=6269200&tabId=11&BV_ID=@@@ Nihar Mukherjee again elected as SUCI's General Secretary "(In Malayalam)"
  7. SUCI rechristens itself as SUCI (Communist)
  8. Key Highlights of General Elections, 1967 to The Fourth Lok Sabha Archived 10 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  9. SUCI(C) banks on a doctor
  10. SUCI fields 40 candidates
  11. "Leading Candidate Jaynagar Live West Bengal Elections Results, 2016 - NDTV.com". m.ndtv.com. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  12. Balan S.S, Wednesday, 21 February 2008, Viplavathintte Kudumbayogam (in Malayalam; Family of Revolutionaries), Kerala Kaumudi Online Edition (Malayalam Daily). Retrieved on 22 February 2008.
  13. Athul Lal AG, 1 April 2009, For Whom Fund Raising is Transparent, Indian Express (National Daily), Thiruvananthapuram. Retrieved on 1 April 2009.
  14. Sreejan B, 26 April 2009, An uphill battle for the upright , Indian Express (National Daily), Thiruvananthapuram. Retrieved on 26 April 2009. Archived 16 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  15. Singure issue triggers protests in Howrah
  16. Singur has turned violent thanks to brutal and anti-people stance of ironic communist government of West Bengal
  17. Singur: Medha Patkar visits dead girl's family
  18. Mamata resigns from LS
  19. Extend support to Nandigram people: SUCI
  20. SUCI Protests against repression in Nandigram
  21. Nandigram turns blood red
  22. Cancel SEZs in Bengal, Buddha urged
  23. SUCI demand
  24. Row over Moolampally rehabilitation package
  25. Aid for the family of deceased Vedi worker
  26. SUCI takes out march
  27. SUCI alleges CPI betrayed anti-Posco people in Orissa
  28. Trinamool-SUCI front organises first rally
  29. Trinamool Congress to tie up with SUCI
  30. CNN-IBN website
  31. West Bengal's Jyothi Basu – A political people, Page 27
  32. A defiant rebel
  33. Populist Governance Archived 18 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  34. Millions Rise Up For Total Bangla Bandh (total General Strike)
  35. Bandh call banks on past success
  36. Twist of the mother tongue
  37. How much do you know about SUCI?
    • 2011: The movement against anti eviction drive at Ranchi, Jharkhand. Forming a public Committee "BASTI BACHAO SANGRASH SAMITI". Lakhs of people protested against government forceful campaign .
    Trinamool-sponsored strike paralyses life in West Bengal
  39. 12-hour shutdown against price rise in West Bengal
  40. Provash Ghosh, SUCI General Secretary, Mathrubhumi Online, 5 March 2010, Kerala News (In Malayalam)
  41. SUCI General Secretary Nihar Mukherjee demised, Malayala Manorama, 20 February 2010, Page 9
  42. "Nihar Mukherjee again SUCI's General Secretary (In Malayalam)
  43. PE05152005.p65
  44. SUCI protest against price hike
  45. SUCI will field candidates in Gujarat elections
  46. PE11012009.p5
  47. CNN-IBN Website
  48. SUCI banks on a doctor
  49. State Elections 2006 – Partywise Comparison for 103-Jaynagar Constituency of West Bengal
  50. The Second United Front Archived 12 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  51. SUCI banks on doctors
  52. Key Highlights of General Election, 1967 to The Legislative Assembly of West Bengal Archived 10 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  53. Key Highlights of General Election, 1967 to The Legislative Assembly of West Bengal Archived 10 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  54. Ganadabi
  55. "SUCI-TMC alliance ends soon after West Bengal polls". Jagran Post. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
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