Jammu and Kashmir, February 6: Workers targeted Adani and Modi for government-sponsored evictions in a mass protest that surged past the Congress Party organizers, clashing with the police and attempting to break through barricades.
India: US, British Imperialists Attack Modi and Adani Masses Need the ICWP, Not “Opposition” Parties
NEW DELHI, India, February 13—“I am so glad you are circulating Red Flag,” said one person who defied a government ban on watching the BBC documentary ‘India: The Modi Question.’ “No group has even a leaflet,” he continued. “Many people were reading Red Flag while they watched the documentary.”
The documentary implicates Modi and his fascist government in the mass killings of Muslims in the state of Gujarat in 2002. The BBC is a major mouthpiece of British imperialism.
Campus and youth groups organized screenings in Delhi and many other Indian cities. The government responded with brutal police violence. Comrades of the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP) clandestinely distributed our literature at some of these events.
Some extol the documentary as a model of truth and impartial objective reporting. In contrast, our leaflet explained, “The rulers around the world are in severe crisis. They expose their rivals to promote their own class interest.
“British imperialists, including BBC, spread vicious lies to support oil interests during the Iraq war as junior partners of US imperialism. Tony Blair and his foreign minister Jack Straw were deeply involved in the massacres of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.” This was the same time when Modi engaged in the massacre in Gujarat.
Many people mistakenly believe that liberals led by the Congress Party can uplift the masses when Modi and his fascist government are weakened by massive unemployment and attacks on mainly Dalits and Muslim youth. Our leaflet asked the masses to organize youth into ICWP as the only alternative to the escalating crisis.
We noted that the top 1000 capitalists in India own 95% of the nation’s considerable wealth. That is, 1,400,000,000 masses compete for 5% of the wealth!
These 1000 capitalists finance and support all the political parties. They own all mass media. They support fascist Modi, but they also finance opposition parties to keep them ready when Modi and his party face mass protests. The same top capitalists supported the Congress Party for over 60 years.
We can’t rely on capitalists because their interests are in keeping wage slavery. The masses in India and worldwide need to overthrow capitalism that makes a profit from its labor. Communism will end wage slavery.
Because of the police presence, we quickly circulated our leaflets and did not have the opportunity to talk to young people. However, within a week, we got some responses.
Young people said, “I admire your bold outlook to build communism. This is what is lacking in India. We need real communists who will never give up. I was a toddler in 2002. Now, we are surrounded by fascists. But your party points out that fascism can only be defeated by communism. I am with you.”
Same Fight, Another Front: US Capitalists Attack Adani
During the same week, the BBC released its documentary, the US-based Hindenburg Group released a report revealing that Gautam Adani, India’s richest capitalist, and his companies were involved in a “$218 billion brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades.”
Adani was key in bringing Modi to power. He organized Gujarati capitalists to support Modi in 2002 when he was under fire for his role in the massacre. Adani’s aircraft ferried Modi all over India in his run-up to becoming the Prime Minister.
In pursuit of maximum profits, the capitalists need to borrow from financial capital (like banks). Their ability to make a profit depends on exploiting the working class. But capital investment requires a smaller number of workers, and that undermines profit, since only workers create profit, not market manipulation. The high unemployment and rebellious workers stoke class struggle.
The Adani group borrowed heavily from Indian banks and US fund managers, banks, and investors. It made strategic investments in European oil companies, steel manufacturers, and ‘Green Energy’ companies. Now the Adani group has begun to crumble, with US and European companies liquidating their assets.
Adani retorted that he was involved in nation-building. The report, he said, “was a calculated attack on India.” But no amount of nationalism can hide the fact that the workers are exploited by capitalists. The bosses everywhere use nationalism to confuse the masses.
Workers have no nation. We urgently need to organize to fight for communism, led by the ICWP.
Youth in Delhi are showing how we can advance and grow under fascist conditions. A young worker said this week, “When the masses join and organize and wake up to the reality of ICWP, nothing can stop us from destroying this system.”