India: Mass Anti-Racist Protests Against Attacks on African Students. Communist Movement Grows Across South Asia
July 20 — Two African students at India’s Roorkee Institute of Technology were brutally assaulted and systematically tortured on July 15 after going out for food. Two attackers were high-ranking university staff. Fourteen more were gang members posing as security officers. The students were beaten for more than two hours and ended up in hospital, comatose.
Several hundred students found out about the racist atrocities and immediately rushed to rescue their African brothers. Thousands more, in over twenty large cities, demanded immediate punishment of the xenophobic attackers. Using the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, they linked this struggle to the anti-racist movement worldwide.
Some very enthusiastic members of the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP) joined the demonstrations in Delhi. They called for avenging fascist murders. “Our small group was very vocal and soon we got almost 100 other people to join our protest,” reported a comrade. “We have learned from our experience in Delhi to advance the communist solution to all our problems.”
Our goal is to get rid of the capitalist system, not just the fascist ruling party (BJP). India’s real unemployment is 34%. Hundreds of millions are without work. The garment industry has collapsed because there is almost no work in the Covid-19 era. 54% of garment workers are jobless. Same is the situation in the auto industry, where the unemployment stands at 24%.
Meanwhile, a war on the 3000 kms (nearly 2000 mile) border of India and China is escalating. A separate war in Kashmir is raging out of control, with more than 900,000 troops, and two million more in the north. In Southeast Asia, China is again trying to contain a growing Indian naval fleet.
Amidst this crisis, our small party has the potential to become a leading force. More comrades and friends have joined ICWP in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The comrades are translating key party documents into Pashto, Dari, Sindhi and Kannada. These and other documents are being put into Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi (three of the twenty most widely-spoken languages in the world). This will make it possible for over 700 million more people to learn about how to smash racist, capitalist ideology with communist revolution.
A worker in the Dari region of Afghanistan said proudly, “Our goal is always the same. We want communism just like our working-class brothers in the Tamil region of south Asia.” A worker in Tamil carries the same sentiment: communist revolution now! Dozens of comrade workers in south Asia are bringing the best our party offers – revolutionary optimism.
The working class must stay the course while the bosses relentlessly attack us in the pandemic, in wars for profit and eventually world war. Our working-class family in India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are bringing to us an ability to grow until no bosses are left on this earth.
Portland Masses Mobilize: Next Steps to Help Unite the People
Portland, USA—Masses in the Streets Confront Racist, Fascist Policing
PORTLAND, OREGON (USA), July 20— The masses in Portland, Oregon are here. For 50+ days, Portland has shown up fighting for our streets in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and the justice for comrades killed by the racist Untied States regime.
Tr*mp’s most recent authoritarian ploy sending federal Department of Homeland Security (ICE, CBP, etc.) agents to “quell” the city’s persistent daily demonstrations has placed Portland in the national spotlight. Upon arriving on July 2nd, the feds have escalated an already tense standoff by using unmarked rental cars to detain (kidnap) protesters off the street without cause, while a U.S. Marshall severely injured a protester with a “less-lethal” munitions round shot to his skull.
It is imperative to not forget that before the feds descended onto Portland to inflict Tr*mp’s fascist agenda on our Indigenous comrades’ unceded Chinook Land, the Portland Police Bureau were determined to crush our movement and preserve their capitalist interests. The PPB unleashed countless acts of police brutality against citizens and dispersed widespread use of teargas, a respiratory irritant, in the middle of a raging pandemic.
How we got here:
Sparked by the George Floyd protests, demonstrations started in late May featuring a diversity of ideas and tactics: direct action demonstrations, economic disruptions, nonviolent marches, organizing vigils for community members to hold spaces for community healing and discussion, educational programming, protester training, and mutual aid collectives.
This Front of community support represents numerous coalitions of differing political ideologies. While most do not self-identify as communist, they share the same goals of communism and our Red Flag readers: fighting against racism, healthcare for all, and abolishing the police. The reinvigorated wave of support Portland has seen with thousands of new faces protesting that are fed up with the current political parties, presents a decisive moment in winning over hearts and minds for global communism for people demanding change. The following strategies were discussed amongst the community as ways to help unify the people of Portland, and beyond in your own community.
Community Priorities: Always listen and raise up Black and Indigenous voices. Period.
Mutual Aid: Support one another with free food collectives. Get involved with or donate to organizations helping feed houseless people and feeding people on the ground. Once established, these communities where people seek out food also become places of socialization. Additional services can be added, like clothes donations, free bookstores, or resume workshops.
Newspapers: Continue to write and distribute the Red Flag with potential readers and comrades. New readers can share their unique ideas and stories, emphasizing the value of a press for the people.
Modernize Social Media: The Portland Protests have been so successful due to the widespread dissemination and sharing of events and news at a second’s notice. Infographics with powerful words and images offer valuable ways to help educate the masses. Infographics can even be shared as PDFs for any user to print a flyer for their neighborhood. A Bandera Roja! Instagram page, and possibly local chapter pages (ex: Bandera Roja LA), could be useful to share knowledge to a wider audience.
Arts: Art is a mandatory part of any revolution. Artists help spread important messages in impactful ways.
Youth: Get the youth involved. Before the resurgence of recent protests, the younger generations in Portland carried the masses in the streets. Give younger comrades ownership in what they choose to rally for, and help establish a tradition of a weekly Friday youth march for high schoolers. This will help educate and mobilize our youngest, most passionate members.
“When we fight and lift up Black lives, we end up raising everybody up.”
Red Flag note: We thank our new collective of Red Flag readers in Portland for this report. Responses are welcome!
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