WORLD SOCIALIST PARTY (INDIA)

257 Baghajatin ‘E’ Block (East), Kolkata – 700086

Tel: 2425-0208 / 7378 (ISD: 091, STD: 033)

E-mail: wspindia@hotmail.com; Website: http://www.worldsocialistpartyindia.org

MINUTES OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING NO. 156

Head Office, Sunday, October 4, 2015: Called to order: 7:45 PM

Present (EC Members): Binay Sarkar, Harisadhan Ghosh, Sumitra Mondal, Pradip Singha and Gorachand Paramanik (Member),

Absent: Biswarup Chaudhury (tour), Dipak Bhattacharya

Attendees: Raghunarayan Chaudhury, Dipankar Roy

Election: Chairperson: Harisadhan Ghosh on motion of Binay Sarkar and Sumitra Mondal; Minutes Writer: Pradip Singha

EC Minutes No. 155 was read and confirmed on motion of Binay Sarkar and Pradip Singha

Membership Application: None

Correspondence: Please note that any comments in square brackets “[]” are comments from the General Secretary.

Inward:

– WSP NZ minutes of meeting of Sunday 2^nd August 2015

– SPC Secretary’s Report for October 1, 2015

– Sher Singh sent his journal Faridabad Majdoor Samachar of September 2015 issue.

– Subhojyoti Ghosh has expressed his willingness to attend our forthcoming AMM and to rejoin the party.

– Santanu Halder is supporting our facebook posts.

– Gargi Sengupta has written expressing her inability to attend this meeting due to her illness.

– Dipak Kumar Bhattacharya has made fresh allegations against us in the aftermath of our EC Meeting Minutes of September 2015

– Sambhu Nag (a founding member of our party who however left the party to marry observing religious rites) has contacted B.Sarkar over phone asking for an explanation of a sentence from Marx’s A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy.

Outbound: Responses as required to incoming correspondence.

MSC: To receive and file incoming and to endorse outgoing correspondence.

Matters Arising:

We observed in our last month’s EC Meeting (06-09-2015) Minutes (dispatched 08-09-2015):

MSC: Since Dipak Kumar Bhattacharya’s letter contains his egotistic and malevolent allegations against our General Secretary, it is resolved that Dipak Kumar Bhattacharya has to write in details of the occasions – “fifth time at the least” – “quite a few times”– wherein he was “criticized” and “suffocated & insulted” as he claims – giving wherefore and in what manner; the matter will be taken up in a future meeting only after receiving his reply as such.

To mention just one occasion, as Dipak Kumar Bhattacharya himself reported in our Sunday Discussion meeting of 19^th April 2015 , in the election of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation on 18^th April 2015, he voted for the Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate. This boils down to gross violation of our of our party’s principle and policy in this regard. Yet, considering his theoretical deficiency and ill health he was not even questioned why. Our GS simply showed him our Party and Movement’s Declaration of Principles No. 7 that reads:

“That as all political parties are but the expression of class interests, and the interest of the working class is diametrically opposed to the interests of all sections of the master class, the party seeking working class emancipation must be hostile to every other party.”

Also note that in his Membership Application form he declared and signified (26-01-2013):

“I, the undersigned, having read and understood the Manifesto of the World Socialist Party (India) and Rules and being in agreement with them accept Object and Declaration of Principles and policies, and accordingly submit my application for membership.”

Dipak Kumar Bhattacharya sharply lashed out (10-09-2015): “This is digging the past to denigrate so that he is shown in dad light. A easy ploy, I do not like to adopt. My Resignation letter is final & irrevocable. After reading the minutes, I think there is hardly any meeting ground. I will not prolong as it may bring in more bitterness.
“There is a point of "Ego" I'm sure if any one has this as a big problem, it is not Dipak but Binay Sarkar, our General Secretary. I'm compelled to mention it, despite my special respect to him as an academic, as inner party democracy is not present in our set up. Following a strict dictate without a cursory deviation can not be termed as inner party democracy. A member must be evaluated by his behaviour or activities, in general & in totality – not by the failure of the leader's dictate verbatim!”     

Then again on 02-10-2015 he wrote: “Obviously I did read the clauses. 
Having submitted my resignation. I want acceptance of it quickly.
If you have other plans, … for example you mentioned at point No 9, 34 or 36, I request you to make such move, which you feel right but don't keep it pending for indefinite period & thereby create inconvenience for me intentionally.
This communication is obviously meant for me, is understood.
 

Now consider:

Instead of addressing the issues concerning our EC Meeting minutes, Dipak Kumar Bhattacharya fraudulently indulged himself in concocting fresh allegations – now against “Binay Sarkar, our General Secretary”, the World Socialist Party (India) and thereby the World Socialist Movement as a whole – against our organizational “set up”. During his tenure as a member since 26-01-2013 and as the Assistant General Secretary since 02-03-2014 until the 6^th September EC Meeting he had never raised a finger against such suspected practices in the party and the movement. Now even he has failed to cite a single instance whereby he was “suffocated & insulted”. Utter dishonesty – pure and simple. On the contrary he was, and is, going on posting comments as he pleases on the facebook timelines – many of which are detrimental to the interest of our party and the movement. Above all, he has hurled a very scathing remark against us: “inner party democracy is not present in our set up” (10-09-2015). Actually, party “set up” works according to party rules. Ours is a participatory democratic bottom-up organization. All our principles, policies and practices are self-governing; we arrange and run our party life in accordance with our RULES which pertain, and are akin, to the rules of all our Companion Parties in the WSM. In addition, we hold that these rules are embryonic to our forthcoming socialist democracy. Note again that in his membership application Dipak Kumar Bhattacharya had accepted the same expressly and never asked any question about any of the clauses therein anyway.

Thus reflecting on all interacting correspondences on the question the party observes that Dipak Kumar Bhattacharya has straight away chosen to abuse, attack and corrupt our cause and case at a time when a very tiny party as ours beside our Companion Parties of the World Socialist Movement is putting our utmost efforts to raise the working class consciousness and organization; he has hideously violated the following rules:

7. A member must not belong to any other political organization or to any religious body, or write or speak for any except for the ideas of the World Socialist Party (India), or render support to any movement (political, religious, etc.) in conflict with the OBJECT and PRINCIPLES of World Socialism. …

9. A member may leave party membership by submitting his/her resignation letter (for any reason except an anti-party false charge) to the Branch Secretary or the General Secretary. Any anti-party defamatory activity or behaviour of a member shall warrant his/her being duly charged and even expelled as per Rules 34 and 36. …

MSC:

That the party summarily rejects Dipak Kumar Bhattacharya’s resignation plea along with all allegations and directly expels him from the party Membership.

Reports of Executives and Committees:

– Sambhu Nag is now intending to rejoin the party. But he is unable to become a member because as a government (panchayet) employee he is barred to take on membership of any political party. However, he has expressed his willingness to work as a supporter of the Party and the World Socialist Movement.

Advancement of the Movement:

[B,Sarkar, G. Paramanik, and P. Singha are going on posting and interacting on Facebook timelines of all “friends”. Harisadhan Ghosh is writing letters and articles in Bengali which are being published in various Kolkata based Bengali dailies. Biswarup Chaudhuri is collecting party fund from sympathizers using receipts inscribing our Object and Declaration of Principles overleaf for campaign.]

The World Socialist Party (India)_Discussion Forum and the website: http://www.worldsocialistpartyindia.org are attracting new contacts.

Facebook: Forum membership till now stands at 1,929

Sunday Discussion: Every Sunday in the evening we meet to read and discuss Marxian Economics and other selected subjects.

Literature: Party literature distribution is going on

Socialist Standard: No arrival as yet

Unfinished Business: None

New Business: AUTUMN SCHOOL & MEMBERSHIP MEETING 2015 will be held at our Head Office on Saturday, 31^st October and Sunday,1^st November 2015 from 11 AM to 2 PM.

Financial Report:

A Savings Bank Account in the name of the WORLD SOCIALIST PARTY (INDIA) has been opened at the United Bank of India, Ganguli Bagan Branch, 84, 1, Raja Subodh Chandra Mullik Rd, Ganguly Bagan, Kolkata, West Bengal 700047, to be operated by the General Secretary and the Treasurer (either or survivor).

Collection of Dues:

Financial Report: September 2015: (Rupees)

Income: 320.00

Expenditure: 1,195.00

Deficit: 875.00

Deficit BF: 15,669.00

Net Deficit: 16,544.00

Membership Subscription & Donation: Included in “Income” above.

MSC: To accept the financial report and to receive donations with thanks.

Next EC Meeting: Head Office, Sunday, November 1, 2015 to be merged with the AMM

Meeting Adjourned at 9:00 PM.