Chennai Hyundai workers protest, 2021
Communist Industrial Workers Plan for May Day, Expose Capitalist Climate Change
INDIA, March 9— Kumar, an ICWP member, works in a Hyundai factory in Chennai. He distributes Red Flag in the homes of coworkers who live more than 20 km (12 mi) from the factory. One is Manjit, who noticed an article discussing how capitalism harms the climate by increasing heat and fuel consumption.
Manjit assembles air conditioning units for Hyundai cars. He estimates that millions of these cars require extra energy from lithium batteries. Lithium destroys fragile ecosystems. It requires enormous amounts of oil and water in production. The lifetime of lithium batteries is about ten years. When they are discarded, they create deadly carcinogens in the water system that the masses consume.
Electric vehicles (EVs) are even worse. “We need communism to explain to the masses that the so-called EVs are like a mass genocide of the working class,” explained Kumar. “Tremendous amounts of fossil fuel are used to produce EVs and batteries. More fossil fuel is used to charge lithium batteries. At every step, the capitalists make a profit, but the masses see catastrophic consequences. Irregular monsoon, flooding and droughts, polluted rivers, rising sea level, as we see in Chennai.”
Deepening Communist Relationships
Kumar met Manjit while distributing Red Flag. What started as a discussion about communism has now expanded to every aspect of their lives. Kumar visits Manjit’s family regularly. Manjit’s wife is from a rural area. With Manjit’s low income and the high cost of living in Chennai, he can’t afford to have his wife and three children live with him.
Kumar invited Manjit to a special meeting of the autoworkers’ collective. For the first time, two women garment workers attended. Mira and Sangeetha travelled 400 km (240 mi) from Bengaluru. These comrades were warmly welcomed in the modest home of an ICWP member. Manjit was impressed by how comfortable everyone felt and by the new friends who came to the meeting.
Sangeetha reported on the work in the garment industry. She stated that recent Red Flag articles about the work in Chennai and climate change necessitated a more vigorous effort to build the party.
“Comrades like Manjit and all the new and old comrades at this meeting are the lifeblood of communism,” she said. “The capitalists are relentlessly attacking our siblings from Gaza to Ukraine to distant places in Africa. But we are showing the masses that we can build lasting relationships of trust with them.
“These relationships will have ups and downs,” she continued. “We have built our party amid genocide in Gaza. There is nothing that can stop us. We are planning at this meeting how to distribute Red Flag massively at the May Day rallies.”
Comrade Mira, who works in a Bengaluru garment factory, talked about the effect of capitalist industrialization and climate change there. Thirty years ago, Bengaluru was called the “garden city of India” with mild temperatures, lakes, trees, green parks, and open spaces. Now it is a concrete jungle of high-rise buildings, shacks built on empty lakes, water shortages, frequent flooding, and unbearably hot weather. There are super-rich areas, but the vast majority of the masses struggle with transportation, inadequate housing, cholera outbreaks, and rubbish everywhere.
In areas where many garment workers live, people battle flooding and water shortages year-round. “Sometimes, it takes us more than four hours to get to the factory.”
Mira said that because of the Chennai collective’s efforts, we are in regular contact with a garment worker in Sri Lanka and several workers in Bangladesh. We have some exciting news from Afghanistan, where we are contacting garment workers. Our goal is to have a more considerable contingent for May Day.
Comrade Manjit ended our long meeting with a comment that encouraged everyone. “I did not know Kumar before he started distributing Red Flag in my area,” he said. “In the Hyundai factory, we cannot even imagine any literature coming in as there are security cameras everywhere. Kumar walked several kilometres to give me Red Flag. How can I not read a newspaper like that?
“Reading Red Flag opened a new life for me,” Manjit concluded. “Things I didn’t know. I know that communism is the answer to this perpetual misery. I am with you all the way.”
ICWP Manifesto:
Mobilize the Masses for Communism available here