Movie Review: “Bhakshak” here ♦ Communism Will Abolish the Material Basis of Sexism here ♦
Movie Review: “Bhakshak” Capitalism: A Sexist, Racist World that Leads to Death
EL SALVADOR, March 20— “When I saw the movie ‘Bhakshak,’ the crudeness of the physical violence shocked me. But on reflection, I realized that it is the result of the capitalist system,” commented a Red Flag reader.
This film is based on real events in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, India, in 2020, where horrors of sexual abuse, rape, and torture were uncovered. Brajesh Thakur, founder of the NGO Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti, was the main person accused in the case. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
“A heartbreaking and dark crime that goes beyond a movie. It is about real evils of capitalist society that no one wants to hear, think, or do anything about. What we turn a blind eye to,” commented J.
It shows gender inequality as an entrenched plague in capitalist societies, we all conclude. The sadism and destructive power that come with being oppressed under a society where only the powerful dominate.
The film tells the story of Vaishali, a young journalist. She investigates allegations of child sexual abuse at a girls’ shelter. She aims to bring these crimes to light.
Vaishali and the superintendent feel helpless in their search for evidence to convict these crimes. It reflects the same helplessness that many women experience. They see their achievements minimized simply because they are women. However, if not for the bravery of one witness who escaped, and the exploited girls themselves, this case would not have come to light.
The protagonist is the main threat to the group of powerful men who are involved in the crimes. A dictatorship of the rich and powerful capitalists who manipulate every kind of system through money to continue to rape girls and women, enslaving them sexually.
We see in this film that journalists and the judicial system cannot end exploitation by exposing it and winning in court. The root cause was never abolished. Heroic efforts are culturally valued in capitalism as we are fooled into believing that we can change the system one act at a time.
Violence against women is a global problem of epidemic proportions. In India, especially against low-caste and Muslim women. Statistics grossly underestimate the rate of rape because women are deathly afraid to report rape and sexual abuse, and rightly so, under a capitalist system.
A Communist World Depends on Revolutionary Struggle
“There are all kinds of gender-based violence. It is part of the systematic violence of capitalist societies,” R added. “The pressure to have children, the ‘paternalistic care’ of Vaishali’s husband, the police responses to both women are examples of attitudes that we must change at the root.”
In our discussion among comrades and friends, C concluded that “The reform changes proposed by politicians can never meet the needs of the working class. Imperialism is a dictatorship of the ruling class which will only serve its needs. Capitalism fosters racism, sexism, exploitation, and violence.”
We watch movies and documentaries about the rotten capitalist system and what people are doing to change it within the capitalist system itself. Let’s imagine with our friends what we would do as communists, specifically, to address it. What practical things do we do as communists within a capitalist society to change it? If the protagonist were a communist, what would be done differently?
Only communist revolution led by our ICWP party will be able to smash the perverse profit system. It will create a communist world for the working class, without Islamophobia, sexism, or racism, eliminating borders and wage slavery.
Organizing and mobilizing the masses for communism means reading and discussing Red Flag and building more collectives. These are the key to the revolutionary struggle to build a red army to put an end to the capitalists.
Long live communist revolution!
Communism Will Abolish the Material Basis of Sexism
A fellow teacher said recently, “I am worried about what is happening. There are too many threats. We can even lose our jobs if we talk about gender issues in the schools.”
“Talking about the problems of capitalism has never been allowed. We must go back to doing the organizing work as was done before. We don’t need authorization from any fascist government. What we need is the commitment to politically train more education workers with communist ideas,” responded another teacher.
Women marched on March 8th as part of International Women’s Day. They protested the measures implemented by this government. They protested violence against women and the hiding of all the information about femicides. El Salvador has the world’s third highest rate of gender-related murders.
The ultra-right, like Presidents Milei in Argentina and Bukele in El Salvador, are removing all discussion of gender politics. What they cannot erase are the struggles for a just system, free of sexism, racism, homophobia, and other poisons.
Communism will abolish money. Work will be based on meeting the masses’ needs. The wage system, the material basis of sexism, will be abolished. This will not be enough, but collectively we will continue to struggle to end all remaining sexist attitudes. To achieve this, we need to mobilize the masses for communism.
MINED (Ministry of Education) has withdrawn all teaching materials related to this issue and has banned everything related to gender ideology. This had been planned since 2022. The government made it official on February 28th of this year.
All content related to gender has now been excluded from the teaching and learning process of students and from teacher training.
In capitalism, sexist and gender practices are very destructive. This government had already removed philosophy from the curriculum. Now it is prohibiting, and threatens to sanction, any discussion of gender, sexism, and homophobia.
These actions challenge us to sharpen the struggle against the capitalist system. And to recruit more women and men to join the International Communist Workers’ Party and read and share Red Flag. And to discuss in the collectives how harmful for the working class are these sexist practices that do nothing but divide the working class.
Communism will abolish all forms of discrimination and structural forms that have historically affected men and women.
Only communist revolution will free us from these cruel and exploitative capitalist practices.
—Comrade Communist Master Teacher in El Salvador
Read our pamphlet:
“The Communist Fight Against Sexism” here
And other articles we’ve published about sexism: here