Revolutionary Socialist Party is a marxist-leninist political party in India. The party got around 0,4% of the votes and three seats in the Lok Sabha elections 1999 and 2004.

History

The party was founded on March 19 1940 and has its roots in the Bengali liberation movement Anushlian Samiti and the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army . 1938-1940 the Anushlian marxists had worked within the Congress Socialist Party, albeit maintaining a separate identity and having documents of their own. When Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose broke with Congress and launched the All India Forward Bloc, the Anushlian supported him although they didn't join his new party. The Anushlian marxists took part in the Ramgarh Anti-Compromise Conference called by Bose. At that conference was that the Anushlian marxists assembled launched their own party, the Revolutionary Socialist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). The first general secretary of the party was Jogesh Chandra Chatterji

The first War Thesis of RSP in 1940 took the called for "turning imperialist war into civil war". But after the attack by Germany on the Soviet Union, the line of the party was clarified. RSP meant that the socialist Soviet Union had to be defended, but that the best way for Indian revolutionaries to do that was to overthrow the colonial rule in their own country. RSP was in sharp opposition to groups like Communist Party of India and the Royist RDP, who meant that antifascists had to support the Allied war effort.

RSP has always had its stronghold in West Bengal, but has branches in a total of 18 states. In Kerala, it is concentrated to the Kollam area, with support amongst fishing communities. Its Kerala branch originates from a split in the Kerala Socialist Party . K. Pankajakshan, the current general secretary, was a KSP member.

Ideology

The party has been accused of troskyist leanings, but it has never adopted the teachings of Trotsky nor has it ever been a member of the Fourth International.

From Documents of RSP by, p. 34: "Rejection of Trotskyism: Acceptance of Marxist-Leninist Thesis of 'Permanent' or 'Continuos' Revolution

But rejection of stalinism did not automatically mean for them [the Anushlian Samiti] acceptance of troskyism. Incidentally, the leninist conception of international socialist revolution is different from Trotsky's theory of Permanent Revolution which deduces the necessity of world revolution primarily from the impossibility of the numerically inferior proletariat in a semi-feudal and semi-capitalist peasant country like Russia holding power for any length of time ans successfully undertaking the task of socialist construction in hand without the proletariat of the advanced countries outside the Soviet Union coming to power through an extension of sociaist revolution in these countries and coming to the aid of the proletariat of the U.S.S.R.

Anushlian marxists adhered to the marxist-leninist theory of 'Permanent' or 'Continous' Revolution. '...it is our interest and task to make the revolution permanent' declared Karl Marx as early as 1850 in course of his famous address to the Communist League, 'until all more or less possessing classes have been forced out of their position of dominance, the proletariat has conquered state power, and the association of proletarians, not only in one country but in all dominant countries of the world, has advanced so far that competetion among the proletarians of these countries has ceased and that at least the decisive productive forces are concentrated in the hands of the proletarians.'"

Current situation

The party has 17 seats in the West Bengal state assembly, 2 in Kerala and 2 in Tripuras. RSP is part of the Left Front governments in West Bengal and Tripura. In Kerala the party is part of Left Democratic Front.

The general secretary of RSP is K. Pankajakshan.

In the year 2001 a severe split affected the Kerala branch, when the regional party chief Baby John broke away and formed Revolutionary Socialist Party (Bolshevik).

Principal mass organizations

• United Trade Union Congress (UTUC)
• Samyukta Kisan Sabha (SKS, Bondeorg.)
• Revolutionary Youth Front (RYF)
• All India Progressive Students' Union (AIPSU)
• Nikhil Banga Mahila Sangha (NBMS, women's wing in West Bengal)

Publications

• The Call (English, publication discontinued)
• Pravaham (Malayalam)

Lok Sabha Election Results

State Assembly Election Results

Further reading

• Documents of the Revolutionary Socialist Party: Volume One, 1938-1947 A.D.. Compiled by Murari Mohan Saha. Published in 2001 by Lokayata Chetna Bikash Society, Agartala. ISBN 81-901193-0-3