Bengaluru, 2016
BENGALURU (India), July 5— “My monthly rent of Rs 7000 ($83) is now more than half my wages,” said Laxmi. “I work on the most demanding task of stitching collar buttons, producing thousands of shirts. If I make a small mistake in stitching, the shirt will be sold at a discount price of $99 in the European market. I am allowed to make no more than five mistakes a month. Now you are asking me if I vote for Congress or BJP?” Laxmi was responding to the election hysteria flooding Bengaluru.
The last five years have been brutal for the garment workers. Laxmi, 43, has worked for over 20 years in the fashion industry. She and fifteen other workers attended our ICWP meeting. The hot topic was how we take advantage of the elections to build communism.
“When I see BJP, I see a bulldozer wrecking Muslims’ homes. I see BJP politicians involved in gang rapes of Dalits. I see Prime Minister Modi in a new $250,000 suit every day,” said Arti. She was attending our meeting for the first time. “It is the same Modi who helps the billionaires like Adani and Ambani. He wants to win my vote because he claims the Hindus are in danger because of the Muslims.”
Arti did not want to vote for the BJP. Most of the 500,000 garment workers did not vote for BJP. However, she was attracted by the opposition, led by the Congress Party, which includes the CPI (Communist Party of India) and the CPM (Communist Party of India – Marxist). The leader of the Congress Party promises to defend the constitution if they come to power.
“For workers like Laxmi or Arti, the elections give an illusion that electoral political parties can change workers’ lives,” said an ICWP leader. “They have spent more than $20 billion on the elections, making it the world’s most expensive election in one of the poorest countries.
“All the MPs are millionaires who defend the capitalists,” he continued. “The Constitution was written to guarantee wage slavery. We need to spread our Red Flag to workers to wake up their eyes. Forty percent of the MPs have a criminal record,” he said passionately. “It doesn’t matter which party they belong to.”
We have produced thousands of leaflets in Bengaluru, Delhi, and Chennai, calling for a communist revolution and not parliamentary elections. Many workers are fed up with the high unemployment and unbearable inflation. They are looking for an alternative to the capitalist bosses’ election circus.
Working-Class Soldiers: Key to Communist Revolution
In Delhi, our collectives are very active among the youth and farmworkers. We pointed out that over 13,000 college graduates die by suicide every year. Youth unemployment is 60% and many remain unemployed for life.
Many young students join the army as the only way to survive grinding poverty. “My father’s small land will be sold to a capitalist corporation. He will be homeless,” said a soldier. “I joined the army to support them. And the army is asking me to defend India against China? I cannot even defend my father’s land!”
This young man reads Red Flag. He read the ICWP pamphlet on soldiers with great interest. He said he had many friends in the army. “They are my lifelong friends. I will talk to them about this pamphlet.”
The fascist BJP did not win a majority in the Indian elections. It had to form a coalition government. The Congress and the opposition are stronger. But almost 40% of the population did not vote at all. It shows that large masses are totally dissatisfied with electoral politics.
“The bosses have their wars of necessity – we have ours!” says our ICWP military pamphlet. The BJP fascists, with their reduced majority, are more attracted to BRICS. Modi will meet Putin in July in a world rife with talk of nuclear war. The rapid decline of the US imperialists and the rise of Chinese imperialism force all the capitalists to choose sides. The Congress party is now more aligned with US imperialism.
ICWP has our own plan of necessity. It is to organize a massive communist party from Bengaluru to El Salvador to end wage slavery. That will be accomplished by the youth building our Red Army from South Africa to the US, India, and beyond.