India: Fight Capitalismâs Divisions , Build ICWP here ⊠ICWP Grows in El Salvador Sweatshops here âŠ
India: Fight Capitalismâs Divisions, Build International Communist Workersâ Solidarity
INDIA, December 3â âWhen I saw the El Salvador garment workersâ article in Red Flag about wage slavery in Bangladesh,â said a comrade, âI immediately called a garment worker in Dhaka. She had been getting Red Flag. I asked her about the strike. She said that with the war in Gaza, many workers are thinking of linking the struggle internationally. We are all wage slaves.â Our Bengaluru collective met at a safe place to discuss the revolutionary potential all around the Middle East.
At this meeting, which was attended by about 25 people, a comrade pointed out that in Kerala, a liberal firm has stopped taking orders to make police uniforms for Israeli police. Many new people came to talk and explain how communists can be organizers of revolution. They specifically pointed out the Gaza letter in Red Flag. âI used to think that India and Pakistan were enemies. After reading the letter, I realize it is the capitalists on both sides who are keeping us divided,â one said.
Not everyone who is âupper casteâ is âupper class.â
A Dalit comrade talked about the systematic discrimination against Dalits. Many get the lowest-paying jobs with the most dangerous work conditions. Almost half of the garment workers here are Dalit women, and they make less than $65 a month.
âWe used to think we Dalit workers were low-paid because of the upper-caste Hindus. But I see that most of them are workers. Although they make more salary than us, they are wage slaves. Only ICWP organizes wage slaves around the world.â
âWe have been talking to a garment worker in Sri Lanka for over a year. If we can have a meeting of garment workers in India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, we can recruit more. Perhaps we can include El Salvador workers also. This will be a clear alternative to NGOs who talk about our plight but never talk about destroying the very root of it, which is capitalist wage slavery.â
Auto workers reported from Chennai. âWe have not written for Red Flag regularly but the war in Gaza has created tremendous solidarity in my factory. Last issue we distributed 500 copies of Red Flag at the factory. We were thrilled to see pictures of the VW plant in South Africa with ICWP calling for a communist revolution.â
âWhy do you think workers are more open now?â asked a comrade.
Another comrade responded. âThe capitalist rulers are inflicting maximum harm on the children of Gaza. It affects every worker when they see such horrors. They ask who is responsible for such mass violence. It is the Israeli capitalists. They are fascists. When I saw Modi giving full support to Netanyahu, I did not doubt that Modi is carrying on the same atrocities in Kashmir, on the Muslims and working-class Hindus.
âAt the beginning of the war, many factory workers did not pay attention,â the comrade continued. âBut as it progressed, everybody was talking about it. When we go with Red Flag, people thank us. âI am looking for an article from South Africa,â they say.â
âTwo-State Solutionâ Was Deadly for Indiaâs Hindu and Muslim Masses
We are also fighting against the fake âCommunist Party of Indiaâ and the âCommunist Party of India (Marxist).â They say that the Gaza crisis can be resolved by a two-nation solution.
âIndia was founded on a two-state solution. It killed over two million Hindu and Muslim people in 1947. Now, almost 75 years later, the richest capitalists are in power. Adani operates the Haifa port in Israel. Ambani is trying to buy a multibillion-dollar Israeli microchip company to stop the US from closing this lucrative deal. A Palestine state will be no different as the capitalists there will exploit the workers.â
The comrades in Chennai are also working with an older comrade who was in the Indian army. He has rich experience of how unreliable the bossâs army is. Israelâs army only proves that they can have the best, most robust equipment. But at the end of the day, soldiers are also wage slaves. We want to explore more about how to recruit communists in the army.
Our Southern collective decided that the recent war in Gaza has created conditions for creating four study groups to talk about abolishing nationalism and wage slavery. We aim to recruit more comrades and double or even triple our Red Flag distribution by May Day.
ICWP Grows in El Salvador Maquilas (Sweatshops)
EL SALVADOR, December 2â âAnd what is this about the Communist Party?â asked Celia, a factory worker. She was meeting with us in the collective for the first time. Another Red Flag reader invited her.
Her question opened the space to explain about the political organizational work that the International Communist Workersâ Party is carrying out inside and outside the factories.
âWe fight for the working class to be liberated from wage slavery, for a world without bosses, and for the work we do to be based on what the working class needs and not for profit,â replied Comrade Lucia.
âICWP is a party that organizes workers internationally, because we need a mass party everywhere in the world that fights for communism. A system in which the working class will collectively administer society. All that is produced will be for use and not to accumulate personal or private wealth. It will be a society without money,â said Comrade Juan.
Juan tried to give a clearer idea of what we are. We are strengthening the collectives of workers, men and women, in these meetings, after finishing our day of wage slavery.
âToday we are under the yoke of capitalism, but that is going to change. The struggle we are organizing has that goal, to achieve the communist system. And for this, we industrial workers are key. Each of us must organize our family and co-workers in the factory,â Comrade Alex responded.
âI understand little about capitalism and Communism, but these ideas that you have explained to me grab my attention and I like them. I will invite my partner to join the Party and to read more Red Flag articles, since he works in another factory,â concluded Celia.
Camila, another Red Flag reader, said, âI have also told my sister about the newspaper Red Flag and the ideas I have heard from the comrades of ICWP. She is also a worker in another factory.â
We ended this collective meeting by inviting the workers to the ICWP international conference. We are planning a meeting with men and women workers from other factories mentioned here, who are interested in learning more about the International Communist Workersâ Party.
Itâs been another week of intense struggle against the bossesâ system. We want to make sure that more workers know about our Party and our newspaper Red Flag. It is not easy or simple inside the factories, but every day our consciousness of communist struggle is growing.