Auto Workers in India prepare for Bharat Bandh (general strike) January 2020
Unite Workers and Soldiers for Communist Solution to Unemployment and War
September 21— Amit, who is in his 20s, works in a major auto plant in Chennai. Several months ago, he met a member of the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP). “In my village,” he said, “almost everyone is unemployed. Young boys and men line up at 4 am for day labor. If they are lucky, the army will hire them. But most will not make it.”
Amit did not make it but he got the job in the auto industry. The remaining 90% of young men spend their days hoping to find a job.
Amit has worked in auto as a casual (temporary) labourer for six years. Every year he hopes for a permanent job. In May, amid the pandemic, he and tens of thousands of others lost their jobs. Over three months later, even more workers are losing jobs. They are getting eviction notices from landlords and food is running out. The small savings people used to send to their families are drying up fast.
In a small makeshift shelter, Amit and other young men are reading Red Flag in their own language, Telugu. They discuss the communist solution to this mounting problem. Why is there unemployment to begin with? The bosses say they need fewer workers because there is no demand. There is plenty of demand for good and affordable housing, health care, hospitals. There are many other useful things that people can do.
But in capitalism, workers have no choice of where to work, who to work with. Capitalists in India use racism in the form of dividing the workers based on religion. Hindu, Muslim, Dalit fight with each other and blame each other for the jobs the bosses decide to keep.
Now we have a bigger problem. Indian bosses are blaming Chinese workers for the loss of jobs. Chinese goods and services are banned in India.
India and China have amassed over half a million troops. Each side can deploy several hundred nuclear weapons. The Indian army, used to tropical weather, is no match for the frigid and unforgiving mountain terrain over 15000 ft (4500 m). High-altitude sickness can kill troops in days. Many more take their own lives.
India also faces a tremendous trade deficit. Last year, India exported $16 billion to China but imported $64 billion from China. Chinese autos, computers, software, chemicals, heavy machinery, TVs flood the Indian market.
Modi’s government banned 106 Chinese software companies from India, but they can’t stop Chinese companies like Alibaba, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo. Alibaba and Chinese banks have financed major India companies like PayTM, Make My Trip and the cab-hailing company Ola.
The Indian ruling class is increasingly looking to ‘decoupling’ India: that is, moving its resources away from China. It wants economic and military ties with the US, France and Israel. Meanwhile, Iran and Pakistan—a former US ally and India’s enemy— are building massive infrastructure to support the Chinese oil industry for the next 25 years.
Wars are written all over the rulers’ faces. That is why Amit and millions like him in cities and villages have no jobs. And it is the same reason the army is luring young soldiers to their quagmire.
The International Communist Workers’ Party knows how to end bosses’ wars for profit. The key is to smash the vile racism that is dividing the workers. We are witnessing fascist and paramilitary forces kill Muslims and Dalits with impunity. More people are targeted in Kashmir with rubber bullets, pellet guns and tear gas. The military is now put in charge of more areas, like Kashmir.
But we have seen that soldiers, if they are organized, are open to the plight of the working class. Those who joined the army from the ranks of the unemployed can play a key role. This has happened before. The mighty British army was brought to its knees in Mumbai by a combined detachment of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians demanding food and not war. This galvanized sailors and soldiers from Iraq to Indonesia and everywhere in between.
Our organizing will draw masses of soldiers and working-class comrades like Amit into the revolutionary fight for communism.
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