A national seminar on “The Crisis of the Left and Prospects of Future” was organized by the Left Coordination Committee (LCC) of Kerala at Calicut on 14 May 2010. Com. Muralidharan, State Secretary of LCC, chaired the inaugural session and Com. Mangatram Pasla, General Secretary of CPM (Punjab), inaugurated the seminar. Pasla said that the CPI(M) has deviated from 1964 party programme and from its own commitments. He called upon all Left forces to come together to fight CPI(M)’s opportunism. Com. Chandrashekar, State President of LCC, welcomed the gathering and Advocate Kumaran Kutty introduced the topic.

Speaking in the second session, Com. V. Shankar, CCM of CPI(ML), called for revitalization and rejuvenation of the Left movement in the present juncture of major crisis in the social democratic Left camp. He proposed the formation of a platform of alternative Left forces, which would act as a platform of people’s struggles and provide a radical alternative to social-democratic bankruptcy and betrayal. At the present juncture, such a forum could focus on a common agenda that might include burning and basic issues like price rise, land reform and state repression and corporate coercion. He cited the April 27 Bharat Bandh in which CPM(Punjab) led by Com. Pasla and LNP(L) of Maharashtra had joined hands with the CPI(ML)(Libertion). Com. Alok Mukherjee of CPI(ML) (Janshakti) also spoke in this session and he dealt with some of the major issues confronted by the Left, including caste question and democratic centralism. The session was chaired by Com. Sugathan, state functionary of LCC.

The seminar was also addressed by comrades MM. Somasekharan, one of the prominent and former leaders of the erstwhile CPI(ML) (Red Flag), Dr. KN. Ajoy Kumar, former leader of CPI(ML) (Red Star) led by KN Ramachandran, KC Umesh Babu and KS Hariharan, Editor of Janashakthi, the magazine of LCC. The seminar was followed by a state level organizational convention of the LCC on the following day. The convention decided to intensify its efforts to form a platform of alternative Left forces in the country and to float its own mass organization of workers and youths. The convention also discussed its strategy for the forthcoming panchayat elections.

The determination to hold on to the Left ground in Kerala against the CPI(M)’s wish of dissident forces getting frittered away reverberated through the entire programme. The Left Coordination Committee comprises of former CPI(M) members and activists in Kerala all of whom have left the party in the recent past. The LCC also intends to bring together all Left forces in the state on a common platform to provide a Left alternative to the CPI(M)-led LDF.