India General Strike: ICWP Comrades Spread Communist Ideas and Prepare for May Day here ♦ “A single spark can start a prairie fire” here ♦
India General Strike: ICWP Comrades Spread Communist Ideas and Prepare for May Day
CHENNAI (India), April 17— “When I see the news of scores of people dying every day in communal frenzy and the continuous explosion of hate crimes by BJP and RSS fascists,” declared a comrade’s neighbor, “I say, communism is the only way that can root out these problems.”
A two-day nationwide strike in late March blocked roads and trains and shut down banks and other workplaces. Public and private sector workers protested the fascist Modi government’s privatization plan and anti-labor, anti-farmer policies.
The strike demands and slogans were all about reforms. But the mass actions created opportunities for ICWP comrades to organize for communist revolution.
“Today we are inviting all our coworkers and friends to a meeting to plan for the general strike in India,” said a comrade whose collective was busy mobilizing on the weekend. “Four million people have died from coronavirus, gasoline prices have doubled, people cannot afford food, there is a rising unemployment.”
Another comrade graphically described the conditions in Chennai and all over India. Everybody sees neighborhoods of Muslim homes razed to the ground by police and fascist mobs. We see girls and women raped in the Dalit districts. The government responds by spreading hate movies like The Kashmir Files. They give free apps to young people that graphically claim that India can become a global power only by eliminating Muslims.
A friend, now unemployed, worked in an auto factory for twenty years. He comes to our collective meetings sometimes. We asked him what prevents him from coming regularly and if he can distribute Red Flag to others.
He said, “I am angry with everything I see. I know the system must change. But we are very small; there are billions of people around the world. When will we see communism?”
Many people have similar questions. We decided to answer them. A young ICWP comrade said, “There are billions of workers in the world. What unites them is that they struggle to survive under the wage system. The minority are the bosses who benefit from it. They should be worried about their survival.”
This sparked new thinking in the autoworker. He agreed that rich bosses use communalism (religious divisions) and sexism to prevent us from uniting as a class to fight for communism.
Red Flag Helps Recruit More Communists
We noticed that he had an unread copy of the last issue of Red Flag in his room. We decided to read that issue and the new one aloud. This took almost one hour. He, along with us, found more answers by reading it collectively. We realized that it is not enough to give someone a Red Flag. We must read it and talk about it, and that is a process of becoming a communist. He readily accepted more Red Flags to give to his friends and decided to come to our meeting for the strike.
Learning from this comrade, we decided to approach all our coworkers by reading Red Flag. Almost everyone took several extra copies. By Sunday afternoon we had distributed over four hundred copies. It showed in the collective meeting for the strike. Our room was overflowing with new workers.
We proposed that the strike is an opportunity for us to put forward communist revolution as the only solution as the bosses are desperately trying to do the opposite. From Ukraine to Sri Lanka and everywhere, the bosses are killing the masses for maximum profit. The unions have become tools of the bosses and they create illusion of change, but they hide brutality of the wage system. The workers and soldiers must organize others to join the International Communist Workers’ Party.
Most of the people who came to the meeting joined our Party contingent in the march during the general strike. We distributed many papers to people who took it eagerly and liked our line. We were the only ones talking about the need to smash fascism with communist revolution.
Our strike activity was a huge success. Spreading our Red Flag helps us to organize for May Day.
“A single spark can start a prairie fire”
At our ICWP collective meeting, a retired soldier (now an autoworker) gave a small speech about the history of the Indian army during British rule. In February of 1946, a group of Hindu and Muslim naval ratings (enlisted sailors) decided to go on a strike due to lack of food. For the first time there was a unity of the Hindu and Muslim naval ratings.
It spread from one ship to another. The British ruthlessly suppressed the mutiny. But there was overwhelming support from the masses in Bombay (now Mumbai). The workers collected food and provided first aid to the wounded. The mutiny spread quickly from Karachi to Iran and as far away as Indonesia. The Congress Party and the Muslim League condemned the mutiny. Only the Communist Party of India supported it.
This mutiny eventually put an end to the British rule in India, but not to the mass misery caused by capitalism. However, we can learn from it. The soldiers are our class brothers and sisters, and we need to train them to be communists. This comrade is helping to do just that.
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