How Communism Will Prevent Mass Starvation and Fascist Violence
Hundreds of thousands of tea plantation workers in eastern India went on a three-day strike in August 2018. They demanded an increase in daily pay from 169 rupees ($2.46) to 203 rupees ($2.96). ICWP is organizing to mobilize tea plantation workers to fight for communism and an end to the wage system.
INDIA, July 7 — Members and friends of the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP) met to discuss our plans for the upcoming communist school. We were reading the editorial of Red Flag and the article about mass starvation in India.
A comrade joined us late, as the meeting was going on. He was visibly very upset. He told us that, yet another Muslim youth was tied to a pole and mercilessly beaten for 12 hours by the fascist followers of BJP (ruling party). The next day the youth died of massive bodily injury.
This news made all of us very furious. It changed our outlook on the urgency with which we must build ICWP for communist revolution. One more youth murdered by the goons of fascist capitalism. We have 7 billion reasons to join ICWP now.
Capitalism in crisis is at the root of growing attacks on Dalits and Muslim youth. Advances in genetics and robotics are producing enormous amounts of crops.
But almost 90% of small and marginal farmers in India cannot afford any of this modern technology. They are unable to compete with large corporate farms. In a desperate attempt to survive, they take out loans to utilize the modern technology, but they end up with deadly debt. Every year over 40 million people from small villages migrate to cities after losing their land.
Capitalist bosses understand that this massive migration of millions of people to cities can be a catalyst for explosive rebellions. They want to use these potentially new industrial workers and keep them divided based on caste and religion. Capitalists in India have created fascist ideology of blaming Muslims for all the problems while they make super-profits.
Our discussion focused on the communist solution to this internal migration and how to solve problems of mass starvation in the communist society we are fighting for.
Communism: Food for Need, Not for Profit
At the onset, a comrade said, “In a communist society we will be able to feed billions of people. But we have to destroy the power of exploitation of the billionaires.” Communist society will produce food for need and not for profit.
We will be able to eliminate the deadly food industry that produces food laced with carcinogens, harmful chemicals, excessive amounts of fat, sugar and salt. Corporate food giants not only make profit, but the chronically unhealthy working class gets diseases that feed the pharmaceutical and insurance industries.
To provide food for billions, we will encourage the participation of billions in every aspect of food production. Masses won to communist ideas will quickly grasp the scientific knowledge required to feed the world and advance our knowledge. That is impossible in today’s profit-hungry world. The health of the international working class by collective struggle will be the guiding principle.
Communist food production will be integrated with every aspect of how we live, where we live, what we eat.
No more McDonald’s selling billions and billions of hamburgers and destroying pristine rainforests in the process while creating havoc on the health of the working class. No more Monsanto destroying the seeds and soil of the earth that took millions of years to evolve. No more insurance companies to suck every drop of blood of the workers in need.
No more banks to evict the workers. No more supermarkets with locks at the door. No profit, no private property and no nations.
We can and we must do it. Communist society, by destroying the very foundation on which capitalism exists, will also survive inevitable periods of devastating wars that bosses are preparing for. We will advance our struggle for communism in the midst of nuclear wars or severe scarcity.
Sharing based on communist principles will end the ‘me first’ thinking of capitalism. The communist relationship of camaraderie will deepen our commitment and knowledge to rebuild the devastations of capitalism.
The rainforests and rivers will rejuvenate, the glaciers will once again see ice caps providing water to the rivers downstream and clean water to the billions.
The diseases of capitalism will be a thing of the past. The future generations to come in communist society will not understand how a society ever existed with money.
We can’t achieve this communist society if we see ourselves primarily as Muslims, Hindus, Dalits, men or women. We can’t even effectively oppose the fascists beating to death our Muslim youth unless we develop a revolutionary class consciousness among our friends, co-workers and the masses.
We have to sharply struggle with one another in a comradely way to overcome obstacles we face in building our party. We are learning to solve the contradictions to move forward. Our communist school wants to prepare plans for billions of us to end the rule of the billionaires of the world.