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Soldiers in India Discuss Communism ā¦ Talking About Communism and the Coronavirus with Soldiers in Mexico ā¦
Soldiers in India Discuss Communism
My father is an auto worker in South India. He works in a factory, but I grew up in a small village that is very poor. My father would send money every month to support the family. I only saw my father when he came home on holidays. When I was 18 years old, my family had no money to send me to school. I joined the Indian army.
Recently my father has been talking to me about communism and the organization International Communist Workersā Party. He says there is a newspaper Red Flag. I found it on the internet when I am outside of the army on my days off.
I liked the articles about the students who are fighting in Delhi. In my barracks the situation is the same as the students face. The quality of our food is very poor.
We have very close friendship among the soldiers. When we started reading about coronavirus, the officers told us that we might have to go to the cities to maintain law and order. Then we heard that one soldier was infected with coronavirus. We are in a very close physical contact with each other and we are extremely concerned.
My father told me the stories of widespread rebellions in the Indian army when it was under British rule. The famous Bombay rebellion started due to lack of food in the Indian navy. The rebellion spread like a wildfire and eventually forced the British to leave India.
We are in a very similar situation. The government is very oppressive, there are no jobs and now with the coronavirus many people are losing jobs, they have nothing to eat and support their family. I will continue to talk to my father about how communism can bring freedom to the poor and oppressed people.
āConcerned soldier in India
Talking About Communism and the Coronavirus with Soldiers in Mexico
A few days ago I was in the Mexican state of Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala. In spite of the coronavirus, daily activities continue in this region. People are not mainly worried about the virus. Theyāre worried about how to surviveāto bring home food to feed their family.
But schools and universities are closed because of the virus, so I was able to travel to the center of the country. Here daily activity continued in various sectors, except for the educational sector which had already been in quarantine.
I decided to contact my friends in the military and I started to talk about this. For them, at first, worry did not exist. They were focused on the fight against narcotrafficking and gasoline theft. But now, soldiers have begun to raise their voices, commenting that thereās no plan to confront the epidemic, although the president announced that there would be hospitals under the control of the National Defense Forces.
I asked my friends about this and they said they didnāt know anything about it. All they know is that theyāre not ready to confront anything like that. They donāt have the necessary equipment. One of them asked me, āWhat should we do?ā
I answered that one day we would form an unbeatable Red Army.
Another said: āWhen a person wants to work, time passes slowly in carrying out plans,ā referring to the question of a Red Army. Another person said that now they havenāt even been given masks, but they keep going out into the streets and they have very little information about the virus. We talked about ICWP and I sent them our military pamphlet and other articles from our paper.
In conversations with others, I have seen again that the virus wasnāt seen as a real threat. In other words, people know itās there and itās killing a lot of people, but they think it wonāt happen in Mexico. You hear nationalist sentiments and songs on social media.
Family members and friends said, āItās only a cold.ā I looked for information on the internet and in WhatsApp groups to clarify the situation and start a discussion.
Now, as days go by, we are beginning to see the effects of the virus. The obligatory work stoppage in the US has begun to cut into the remittances Mexican workers in the US send home. Acquaintances and family members work in the US. They have said that they canāt send money because they arenāt working. Families are worried about their immigrant relatives and also because they wonāt be getting money.
In spite of everything, thereās a feeling of calmāthe calm before the storm. Lopez Obradorās declaration, to have faith in order to stop the virus, which was working at first, is fading little by little. The working class is beginning to realize that what the president is really worried about is the bossesā economic losses, not workersā lives.
Iāve had more conversations with people from different sectors, and as the situation develops, I will share some actions that have been proposed or are being carried out.
Now, thanks to conversations with Party comrades and reading Red Flag, I am strong enough to face this situation and even more, the recession that is coming closer. We have to point out that capitalist is killing us and to fight for communism.
In a communist society wee wontā need to choose who lives and who dies. In a communist society weāll work collectively and without pay we will work for the common good, without nations or bosses. Now more than ever: Join our revolutionary struggle. Now more than every: You need us and we need you.
āComrade in Mexico
Baghdad, Iraq āThe People want to overthrow the regime.ā One marcher declared that āthe government and its militias are more dangerous than a virus.ā