Garment workers protest in Bengaluru, India, 2016
Garment Workers’ Leaflet: “The Future Is Communism”
INDIA, October 28 — We ask all our friends, neighbors, and coworkers to fight for communist revolution led by the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP). We are three women in the garment factory. Our youngest worker is 24 and the oldest is 41. We came from small villages where there were no jobs. We experienced constant hunger, starvation wages and humiliation. Sexual harassment was happening every day.
We escaped our village life to find work to support our families. The condition in the garment factories is no different. We are still starving because half of us have no job. We are at the mercy of the bosses and their hatred for women. We are hounded by sick slumlords and we get kicked out when we are behind in our rent. Money sharks make a killing when so many women fall behind in wages. They charge interest of over 300%.
The situation with coronavirus has driven thousands of our working-class family members to death and destruction. From the fury of raging rivers and rains that destroy what little we have, to the unbearable summers, we are fighting for survival.
So today, we call on all of you to join us in a fight to change the system. Changing the system is to fight for communism of ICWP. Many of you have not heard of us. Some of you think of communism as the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or smaller parties like Communist Party of India-ML, the Maoists, the Naxalites, etc.
We are different than all other parties. We fight for the eradication of the money system. Without the money, the bosses have no power. We do not need the bosses. We want to run our own system of communists creating everything. We will rebuild our homes safe from the rains. Our healthcare will be for the people and we will eliminate hunger, killer mosquitoes and deadly diseases. We will not have to beg the bosses, their politicians. There won’t be District Magistrates (DM), Inspectors General of Police, India Administrative Services, or red beacons with the blaring sounds to intimidate us.
But to achieve this system without money, to achieve communism, we have to bury the bosses and their ghastly system that is killing the Dalits in Hathras. We will have to be united as a class to defeat the bosses. The shameful bosses are saying that there was no gang rape in the village of Hathras. We all know that they are trying to cover themselves. Their DM is intimidating us. But when we are united, women, men, Dalits, Muslims and all workers, we will have the power of communism.
We are the future. The future is communism. The bosses and their intimidation have an answer – communism. Every boss fears communism.
We are reaching out you, comrades. We want to share our Red Flag. It will explain to us all that the communist system will triumph. We want you to come to our meetings. Every problem that the bosses have created will be met by more communists.
Report from the Comrade Workers in India
We distributed this communist leaflet in the Hindi and Kannada languages to our neighbors in the garment districts. Many were incredibly angry with the continuing atrocities of the police, the bureaucrats, and the political bosses. However, no one was surprised.
Many looked at our leaflets and showed us the Red Flag they had received weeks ago. Three workers in one family wanted to know how to join ICWP. One of them said that the CPI and CPM were just like the bosses. We need a better alternative.
We asked them to come to our regular meetings, distribute our literature and talk to their neighbors and workers in the factory. Another worker said that, year after year, fake union leaders fight for higher wages and the bosses take it away with rampant inflation. We can never win in this money system.
One comrade who had met an autoworker last year said that when we are fighting as a class, it opens our eyes to communism. A group of young workers wanted to know why socialism cannot open the doors for communism. We promised to produce our Mobilize the Masses for Communism in local languages so many people are exposed to these questions.
We have made many contacts with comrades who are willing to meet with us regularly. We welcome them as it will expand our ICWP collectives.