The cremation was a second rape by the system! The system must come down!
INDIA, October 8—Women and men across India are outraged by the gang-rape of a young Dalit woman by four upper-caste Hindu men in Uttar Pradesh. The rapists assaulted her repeatedly for two days, leaving her partially paralyzed and bleeding. After ten days in the hospital, she died from her wounds. Before she died, she told the police the names of the four assailants.
The police, conspiring with the upper-caste Hindus, claimed there was no rape. They did nothing to punish the rapists. Then her wailing family tried to claim her body for burial. Instead, police locked them inside their home while they burned the body to destroy all the evidence.
Uttar Pradesh is the largest state in India. It is controlled by fascists with deep hatred for Dalits and Muslims. In last two weeks alone, there have been eighteen reported gang rapes and murders. Several Muslim men have been tortured by the fascists. Not a single person has been prosecuted.
Mass demonstrations throughout India have condemned this brutal rape, murder and police cover-up. Masses are furious about the continued rapes and attacks on Dalits and Muslims. Women have taken the lead. The All-India Progressive Women’s Association said the police action of cremating the body in the dead of night without the family’s permission “reeks of caste supremacy.”
India’s 200 million Dalits (even below the lowest caste) have long faced discrimination and abuse. Attacks on them have increased during the coronavirus epidemic as the government pushes more fascism.
“Damn the system that condemns women to barbaric atrocities as they toil hard to make wages!” comrades in India exclaimed. “Damn the system that, on top of other unbearable conditions, forever puts layers of sexism and caste oppression! Damn the system in which politicians, police and judges commit the victims of horror to insanity.”
Our young ICWP members and growing group of friends in India have demanded that the entire system of capitalism has to go now. We are resolutely organizing so that communism and only communist revolution will avenge the system that stifles our voices.
Communism will eliminate wage slavery: the material basis for sexism, Islamophobia and the racism of the caste system. Every person will be nurtured in a society that guarantees everyone’s safety and values their contribution to the collective. Communist masses will wage a relentless fight against class society’s sexism and racism until these are eliminated.
The sharpest attacks on the working class confront us with numerous opportunities. The murders of primarily Dalit and Muslim women are a result of extreme sexism and racism that targets wage slaves with unending horrors. We need the working masses: women, men, Dalit, non-Dalits, Muslims and non-Muslim, Hindus and secular – the united working class– to end the capitalist system of oppression.
The bosses and many of their nationalist politicians push the idea that the solution will come when Dalits fight the so-called upper-caste Hindus. Their vicious outlook paints the Dalits only as victims. It pushes Dalit workers further into backward ages of sexism and capitalism. The real solution comes when the working class, as a united class, stands up and fights to end the system of wages. We will have to unite our working-class sisters and brothers including the millions of soldiers who have the power to change this oppressive system. Those attacked the hardest by capitalism’s sexism and racism will give crucial leadership in this struggle.
Meanwhile, the army is inflicting horrific terror in Kashmir. Millions of troops are massing up to fight on the border of India and China. Our task is to take our fight to the capitalist bosses. Our young and emerging communists of ICWP are developing the voices to fight for communism.
We will bring these voices in the form of communist podcasts that will spread our messages in many languages. We fight for a future where nobody will be raped or tortured or murdered. Our class tormentors have every reason to tremble because our small but determined communist group is growing in strength. Communism is the future.
Read our pamphlet: The Communist Fight Against Sexism, available here.