Communist Garment Workers Organize Gaza Solidarity here ♦ Kashmir and Manipur are like Gaza here ♦
Hyderabad, India: Masses defy fascist Modi government’s attempt to stifle pro-Palestine activists and ban protests.
India: Communist Garment Workers Organize Gaza Solidarity on the Job
BENGALURU (India), December 29— The garment worker collective here was very moved by the letter from Gaza. We decided to distribute Red Flag in our neighborhood and ask people to donate to support our work in Gaza. We went to the homes of regular readers. People were eagerly waiting for the Red Flag because workers were familiar with the war in West Asia (Palestine/Israel).
As soon as our neighbors saw the Gaza letter on the first page, they started reading it. Usually, when we distribute RF, most people say they will read it during the week. Some people were in tears as they read the letter. Without even realizing it, they grabbed whatever money they had and put it in our can as a token of their support.
“This is communism, comrade. I did not know you have such people in your party,” said a woman who has worked in the garment factory for five years. “I don’t have a lot of money, but what I have here, is going to help people like you. I know comrade Hamza is our comrade.”
We asked her to join our Party that fights directly for communism. She said, “I am thinking about it seriously. The letter from comrade Hamza has touched my heart.” We had similar responses from most of our regular readers.
This is the first time we have asked people to contribute to Red Flag. We learned that we can truly rely on the masses. The workers are struggling to have two meals a day, but they opened their hearts to a communist cause. We will ask workers to contribute regularly because it always leads to a much deeper discussion about the need to end imperialist wars with communist revolution.
I was so encouraged by the heartwarming response in my neighborhood that I decided to take another step. I work in a small garment shop of about 150 workers. I have nine regular readers. We all decided to read the Gaza letter to everybody in the shop during our lunch period. The workers not only gave us money, but they are talking about communism as the only solution.
It is perhaps a small step. But there are many comrades in our collective engaged in similar struggles at their workplaces. We will get their report later.
We are on the path to building a mass party.
India: Kashmir and Manipur Are Like Gaza
My party collective in New Delhi asked me and some other comrades to distribute Red Flag regularly in the industrial area. Many immigrants from Kashmir and the Northeast live there. We have done this occasionally. But the letters from the Gaza comrade affected our thinking in a very deep way.
The comrade from Gaza sees a possibility of ending this capitalist carnage by organizing Palestinian and Israeli workers for communism. This is true and applies to our immediate struggle with the workers in Kashmir. The capitalist governments have been ethnically cleansing the Muslim population since 1948 just as in Palestine.
India-administered Kashmir has a population of about 10 million, mostly Muslim workers. India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, led by fascist Modi, has intensified attacks on the Muslims. Kashmir is occupied by over a million Indian soldiers, paramilitary forces, and police.
There are frequent extra-judicial killings, torture, imprisonment without trial, and curfews. There are “fake encounters” where police arrest someone for no reason, turn them loose, then kill them for “trying to escape.” All this has created masses looking for a solution.
Similarly, in the Northeastern Region, the fascist BJP has been carrying out ethnic cleansing in the state of Manipur, with over three million people. Churches and mosques are bulldozed. Minority and tribal communities are displaced at alarming rates. Just as in Kashmir, the government has completely cut off internet services to hide the brutal killings taking place every day.
My comrades and I started with a leaflet and Red Flag distribution in South Delhi, where there are migrants from Kashmir and Manipur. Even under the watchful eyes of police, we were able to distribute many copies throughout the day. Workers instantly identified with the Gaza genocide. They described similar atrocities that have displaced them.
We extensively discussed the Gaza letter with many workers. They said that many people in Kashmir and Manipur are feeling the same way as the comrade in Gaza.
The only difference is that the Gaza comrade had been reading Red Flag. That has changed how he sees the future. It is an important lesson for us that consistent distribution of Red Flag in Delhi will lead to our literature reaching Kashmir and Manipur.
We were self-critical in not being consistent, but the Gaza comrade is showing us the path for future. We promise to be with the masses in their struggle.
Comrade in Delhi, India