The Communist Party of India (Marxist) leadership is deliberating “novel methods” to reach out to various cross-sections of the society, including students, the middle class and workers of the unorganised sector.
Elaborating on the discussion at the Plenum on Monday, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said on Monday that under the “changed circumstances”, the leaders will have to spread the party organisation beyond the confines of campuses and factories.
Mr. Yechury pointed out that in the present scenario, most students in the country study in private colleges with scarce opportunity to organise through students’ unions.
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“We have to reach out to them through platforms such as discussion forums, clubs and various other civil society organisations at residential complexes,” said Mr. Yechury, adding that for private sector employees, most of whom are contractual workers, the contract often comes with a rider of desisting from participating in any political activity.
“So to bypass such obstructions, we have to build our organisation at places like residential complexes, discussion forums, professional bodies such as lawyers’ associations,” said Mr. Yechury.
The party leadership also emphasised on penetrating places of social gathering such as clubs as well as study circles of educational institutions to reach out to the middle class.
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As for workers of the organised sector whom the party cannot access at their place of work, Mr. Yechury said they would try to reach out to them at their residence. He cited the example of urban daily wage workers gathering at certain points in the cities seeking jobs from contractors. “We have to be there and we are considering such ways of reaching out to them,” said Mr. Yechury.
As for agricultural workers, the party seeks to reach out to them during their off-season when they are engaged in other jobs.