Chennai autoworkers on strike, 2016
Autoworkers: Pandemic Is a Disease of Poverty; Communism is the Solution
CHENNAI (India), August 23— “This pandemic is never going to end. We are going to have the fourth wave after the delta mutant,” said a comrade who works in an auto plant here. “Each wave is an attack on the working class. In the beginning, it uprooted the lives of millions of workers. They saved the last drop of little money they had to reach their homes hundreds of km from big cities. Many workers who had no money were left homeless or took out loans from the local money lenders.” Another comrade agreed.
Raman and Jaya are among thousands of autoworkers who have seen their neighborhood devastated by fewer workers reporting to the factory. Many have been waiting for months after getting laid off. Some are never going to come back, as fewer workers are called back because there is less demand and because massive retooling in the auto industry requires fewer workers.
“Five of my neighbors went back to Bihar when they lost jobs and all of them have coronavirus,” one said.
“Coronavirus now is like seasonal diseases like cholera, TB, malaria, gastrointestinal diseases. They can all be prevented but the profit system excludes the masses of workers getting any treatment because they are the ones to get it in the first place.”
Each wave of coronavirus protects some, but vaccine apartheid does not reach hundreds of millions of people around the world. “In the beginning, some politicians and rich people used to get coronavirus. But now, it is almost exclusively a disease of poverty.”
The auto worker comrades met with other comrades in India to discuss the emerging situation in Afghanistan and how it affects the working class. The comrades unanimously pointed to a copy of Red Flag. One worker displayed it so the room full of comrades could see it.
“This is the answer, point to the articles in Red Flag. Communism will not only put an end to the remaining pandemics inherited by the capitalist greed, but our vast knowledge based on science produced by the masses will create a completely new society to prevent pandemics from happening in the first place.”
This comment invigorated comrades to talk about how to double or triple Red Flag distribution. Everybody agreed to take extra copies. It led an older comrade to bring up his son, who is in the Indian Army. Several years ago, we maintained regular contact with him. But now we want to do a better job. The older comrade will work with others and make sure that we not only remain in touch with his son, but get to know other soldiers as well.
Yet another worker mentioned a relative who is an autoworker in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He would like to send him copies of Red Flag. Our meeting ended with a very positive morale. The comrades are enthusiastic that a massive International Communist Workers’ Party is possible now. We have to overcome our internal contradictions in a comradely, encouraging way with the help of our international party.
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