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Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist)

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Socialist Unity Center of India
SecretaryNihar Mukherjee
Founded1948
Headquarters48 Lenin Sarani, Kolkata - 700 013, India
22°33′49.9″N 88°21′20.1″E / 22.563861°N 88.355583°E / 22.563861; 88.355583
NewspaperEnglish.Proletarian Era
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
IdeologyMarxism-Leninism, Shibdas Ghosh thoughts
AllianceIndependent
Seats in Lok SabhaNone
Seats in Rajya SabhaNone
Website
www.suci.in

The Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) is a communist party in India. The party was founded by Shibdas Ghosh in 1948.

Ideology

SUCI considers itself as the only genuine communist party in India, 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, Lenin, Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, and ideas of Ghosh.

SUCI holds that India is a capitalist country. In line with that analysis, the party works for Socialist Revolution, rather than People's Democratic Revolution (like CPI(M)), National Democratic Revolution (like CPI) or New Democratic Revolution (like the Naxalites). SUCI considers Sarat Chandra Chatterjee a Bengali writer who held the view that Muslims lack culture by birth and Hindus are superior to them as they are born with culture as "the most outstanding exponent of the revolutionary trend of Indian Renaissance".

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 SUCI had a presence in the legislative assemblies of Assam, Bihar and Orissa at various times. As of 2006, it has two MLAs in West Bengal and one in Orissa.

In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections SUCI launched 56 candidates, 30 of them from West Bengal.

Current situation

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

SUCI is actively involved in the ongoing anti-SEZ movements in India. The most notable of these movements that the party is active in are:

SUCI analyses the Indian Union Budget of 2008-2009 "to be not for the common man as is serves no purpose for the middle class" and has carried out protests against the budget in various parts of the country

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.

SUCI rally in Kolkata

Campaigns

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 reinsertion of English.

Below is a chronological list of campaigns organized by the SUCI in the West Bengal:

  • 1953: Tram fare protest movement was organized by the SUCI.
  • 1954: In 1954, the SUCI organized the teachers’ movement.
  • 1956: Banga bihar sanjukti birodhi andolan.
  • 1958: Students’ movement was organized by the party.
  • 1959: The SUCI organized food movement.
  • 1967: Another food movement was led by the party.
  • 1979: The SUCI organized a movement against various decisions taken by the Government of India.
  • 1980: The SUCI organized Bhasha andolan against the Government of West Bengal which continues till now.
  • 1983: A movement was led by the party against bus fare hike.
  • 1988: First Party Congress in Kolkata(24-29March)
  • 1990: Another movement was organized by the 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 August 31, 1990. This was the first bandh.
  • 1991: A protest was led by the organization against electricity price hike.
  • 1991: The SUCI organized a movement against the state education policy.
  • 1998: Bangla bandh on February 3 in order to bring back English at the primary education. This was the second bandh.
  • 2000: The SUCI organized a protest movement demanding English as a compulsory subject at primary education.
  • 2002: A protest was organized 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.
  • 2006-ongoing: The Anti SEZ movements in Singur and Nandigram.
  • 2008: April 21 12-hour state-wide shutdown in West Bengal jointly called by the Trinamool Congress and the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) ,

A major campaign of the party in Kerala was against the much criticized District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) funded by the World Bank. The agitation resulted in the setting up of a committee by the state government to review the education policy in 2001. Based on the committee's recommendations, the government revoked the decision of the previous LDF government to extend DPEP curriculum to the 8 standard. The DPEP textbooks where withdrawn and the previous textbooks as per previous curriculum and syllabus was reinstated.

SUCI mural in Kolkata, announcing 'SUCI day' rally on April 24

Criticism

Media criticised the party for dehumanized Stalinist regime prevailing at what it calls "communes" following the suicide of a leader of the West Bengal party unit who lambasted in his death note the corruption inside the party. He specifically named Provash Ghosh, the secretary of the West Bengal unit as the chief culprit.

Leadership

After Ghosh's death in 1976 Nihar Mukherjee, a co-founder of SUCI, became the General Secretary. Secretaries of the State Committees of the party are:

Secretaries of the State Organizing Committees are:

The MLAs of the party are:

In 2005 Probodh Purkait, a SUCI MLA who represented Kultali constituency for 30 years, was convicted for murder and sentenced to life term by the Calcutta High Court. SUCI denounced the court ruling as a 'conspiracy of CPI(M)'.

Mass organizations

The principal mass organizations of SUCI are:

Publications

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

Cover of Proletarian Era

The state committees of the party publishes:

References

Part of a series on
Communism in India
People
HistoryColonial period and partition

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Contemporary history

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Principles
Current organisations
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Related topics
Communism portal
  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. Culture as a site of struggle, K. N. Panikkar, The Hindu
  5. Introduction to An Evaluation of Sarat Chandra
  6. Prez poll punches - SUCI member abstains in Orissa; BJP ‘dissidents’ vote for Pratibha in Ahmedabad
  7. ^ Singure issue triggers protests in Howrah
  8. Singur has turned violent thanks to brutal and anti-people stance of ironic communist government of West Bengal
  9. ^ Singur: Medha Patkar visits dead girl's family
  10. ^ Mamata resigns from LS
  11. ^ Extend support to Nandigram people: SUCI
  12. ^ SUCI Protests against repression in Nandigram
  13. ^ Nandigram turns blood red
  14. ^ Cancel SEZs in Bengal, Buddha urged
  15. 21 SUCI supporters arrested
  16. Trinamool-SUCI front organises first rally
  17. Trinamool Congress to tie up with SUCI
  18. Millions Rise Up For Total Bangla Bandh (total General Strike)
  19. Bandh call banks on past success
  20. Twist of the mother tongue
  21. ^ How much do you know about SUCI?
  22. Trinamool-sponsored strike paralyses life in West Bengal
  23. 12-hour shutdown against price rise in West Bengal
  24. Series of Education Reform and Management
  25. Notes on “Issues in school education in contemporary Kerala” after May 2001
  26. Movement Against DPEP Attains Victory in Kerala
  27. Life in an SUCI Commune Stalinist Dogma and Little Else
  28. SUCI protest against price hike
  29. PE05152005.p65
  30. Tamil Nadu SUCI on Tsunami
  31. SUCI will field candidates in Gujarat elections
  32. State Elections 2006 - Partywise Comparision for 102-Kultali Constituency of West Bengal
  33. State Elections 2006 - Partywise Comparision for 103-Joynagar Constituency of West Bengal
  34. Life-term for MLA, Report in the Hindu
  35. Why CPI(M) conspires to implicate SUCI MLA and others in a false case
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