SOCIAL SCIENTIST Scores of these young men provided the cadres for the newly-formed CSP. The CSP in Malabar held forth as its main goal the aim of making the Congress into an instrument of struggle rather than a forum for compromise with imperialism. That Kelappan presided over the first meeting and Govindan Nair was elected president of the CSP (both became leading rightwingers later) only highlights the characteristic of the peasant and revolutionary movement in Malabar which emerged out of the unity and struggle within the Congress-led independence movement and finally became the standard-bearer of scientific socialism. In 1935, a Radical Conference was held at Calicut under the auspices of the GSP. The welcome address prepared by E M S Namboodiripad provides a rare glimpse into the working of the minds of the CSP radicals at that time. He stated: If we carefully examine the Congress, which we all cherish., we see two pictures emerging. The fifty-year-old Indian National Congress is not one but two. A Congress which begs for independence for the Indians and a Congress which struggles and fights for independence; a Congress of deputations and appeals and a Congress which spreads the message of swadeshi and boycott; a Congress which has accepted constitutional reforms and entered councils and a Congress which has conducted non-cooperation and gone to jail; a Congress which was afraid of civil disobedience and a Congress which immersed itself in it. In brief, a Congress which compromises and Congress which struggles. We mistakenly thought that both these are one.8 Worker-Peasant Alliance The conference adopted a comprehensive programme of work which was presented by Keraleeyan. Among the important points were: 1) Fight for increase in workers' wages and reduction in working hours along with propaganda among workers on the nature of capitalist-state collaboration and repression; 2) movement of peasants based on demands for abolition of landlordism^ removal of indedtedness, improvement of working conditions of agricultural labourers; 3) removing ministerialists and other moderates and making Congress into a real people's organization; 4) setting up of yuvajana sanghs (youth leagues) and clubs and propagandizing through them full independence and the course of struggle to achieve it; 5) opposing imperialist-inspired wars and making all efforts to strengthen the anti-imperialist struggle to gain independence.9 It was with such an anti-feudal, anti-imperialist programme based on workers, peasants and youth that the CSP hoped to convert the Congress into a revolutionary movement. The first efforts of the CSP radicals was to organize the working class in the towns. Malabar was industrially backward, but it had various traditional industries and a sprinkling of small modern industrial formations. The tile workers of