FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
	International Communist Workers Party
ICWP@Anonymousspeech.com

Capitalism seeks to divide us on racial lines.  Portraying black and brown men as monsters or super predators is one tactic they use. There are an increasing number of women in prison too. Capitalism is built atop racism and the privatized prison system is the new chattel slavery.
The US criminal Justice system was birthed during slavery.  It still disproportionately affects black and brown individuals. Communities are being destroyed. Instead of funding programs that uplift people, like treatment for substance abuse and education, the funding is directed towards mass incarceration.
Traffic stops are the easiest way for police to snare people of color, who become easy targets for feeding jails (see box). The “war on drugs” encouraged this.  Police are trained by the Drug Enforcement Agency, which gives them grants and military equipment. They were taught “drug courier” profiles, which could describe anyone.  A person who is “too nervous” or “too comfortable” or “driving poorly” or “driving too well” could be stopped and harassed.
Starting with the Reagan Administration, police departments are allowed to keep for themselves any property seized (money, homes, etc.) whether or not someone is found guilty of drug charges. Most people find it too expensive to fight to retrieve the property, or are afraid.
Many who may not see the inside of a prison are still labeled felons while dealing with probation, parole, or even home monitoring and house arrest. They risk further charges due to the extra restraints placed upon them.  Most are poor and have been further disenfranchised by the judicial system.  This is the new caste system.
People of color are generally poorer than their white counterparts.  Police target them because they do not have the means to fight back.  The cops get more money for their departments by busting a lot of poor people than by busting one wealthy white person who has the means to go to trial and win.
Many studies have shown that the “justice” system is racially skewed. But that system insists that it is “color-blind” unless one can prove outright discrimination in an individual case.  And courts insist that to prove discrimination one needs info from the prosecutor that the prosecutor is not required to provide. 
Media depictions of black people as “criminals” act as another tool to advance this agenda. The laws are supposed to be colorblind but those who enforce them have preconceived ideas and biases from the mass media. 
Mass incarceration forcibly commodifies people. Black and brown people were the first targets for filling for-profit prisons.  But their white class brothers and sisters are increasingly swept up. The wealth gap of end-game Capitalistic society puts all of us in peril!
Communism will not need to waste human talent and creativity to make profits. All individuals can actualize their true potential.
When money is removed from our society and all basic needs are met, the stress that leads to addiction and deviant behavior will be greatly reduced. Black markets will be eliminated along with poverty.  There would be no purpose for corrupt police forces, swat teams and policies that now criminalize humanity to feed the coffers of the bourgeoisies.

Modi, the fascist prime minister of India, recently said, “South Africa transformed Mohandas (Gandhi’s first name) into Mahatma (the Great soul).” 
In reality, the Gandhi who lived in South Africa a century ago was a racist young lawyer.  His racism was rooted in orthodox Hinduism, which made the Dalits “untouchables.”  Dalits were not allowed in upper-caste Hindu neighborhoods. 
Gandhi went to South Africa to do legal work for upper-caste Indians.  One of his first assignments was to segregate the Indian population from black people.  He described blacks as ‘savages’ and used the extremely insulting word ‘Kaffirs’ to describe them.  He wrote, “Kaffirs as a rule are uncivilized – the convicts even more so.  They are troublesome, very dirty and live almost like animals.”
During the 1906 Zulu rebellion, Gandhi urged Indians to fight on behalf of the British army.  He formed a volunteer Indian ‘stretcher bearer’ corps to treat wounded British soldiers.  They would refuse treatment to landless Zulus and leave them to die on the battlefield.
When Gandhi arrived back in India in 1915, India (like South Africa) was in the midst of huge peasant rebellions against British rule and the devastating effects of World War I.  Between 1902 and 1916 several violent strikes took place in textile mills, jute factories, and docks of Bombay and Calcutta.  In addition, thousands of rural Punjabis who had emigrated to America started a weekly paper Ghadar (Rebellion) in 1913 to support the rising working class in India. 
Gandhi joined the Indian National Congress in 1915.  He spent the next three decades building a mass movement based on nationalism.  He was fearful of mass violence and rising revolutionary ideas in the working class.  His devout Hindu beliefs, including caste segregation, formed the foundation of nationalist movement.  While he rejected the practice of ‘untouchability’ of the Dalits, he supported the Hindu system of segregation.
The Bolshevik seizure of power in the Soviet Union in 1917 had a tremendous effect on the working class in India and worldwide.  The Communist Party of India was formed in 1925.  In less than a decade, it was leading massive rebellions of workers and peasants. 
Gandhi tried to counter this revolutionary movement with the fanatical Hindu caste system.  He wrote, “The object of the caste system is to prevent competition and class struggle and class war.” 
Gandhi’s anti-communism took him to a personal meeting with the fascist Mussolini, who described him as “a genius and a saint.”  Gandhi was welcomed by fascist black-shirts in Rome.  Gandhi in return hailed Mussolini for his “care of the poor… He seems to have done much for the peasant class.” 
Gandhi wrote, “Behind Mussolini’s implacability is a desire to serve his people. Even behind his emphatic speeches there is a nucleus of sincerity and of passionate love for his people. It seems to me that the majority of the Italian people love the iron government of Mussolini.”
While Gandhi could not meet Hitler personally, he wrote to him in December of 1940: “We have no doubt about your bravery or devotion to your fatherland, nor do we believe that you are the monster described by your opponents.”
No wonder Modi praises him!
Gandhi’s fascist sympathies are not well known.  The capitalists’ history books portray him as a smiling saint who defeated British imperialism with non-violence.  They never mention his vile racism toward Dalits, Muslims and black Africans.
The masses everywhere must reject Gandhi’s anti-communism, pacifism and nationalism along with his racism.  We must mobilize for the communist revolution that alone can end the horrors of capitalism. 
Collectives of the International Communist Workers’ Party and networks of Red Flag readers are growing in India, South Africa and elsewhere around the world.  Comrades across continents are learning from each other.  Many are helping to translate our Party’s manifesto Mobilize the Masses for Communism.  This will help to arm the working class with the revolutionary outlook needed to defeat the bosses and their racist system. 

More information:  Desai and Vahed, The South African Gandhi:  Stretcher-Bearer of Empire (2015)

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