Bosses Fight, Workers Starve
CHENNAI (India), April 18— When the US/Israel started the war with Iran, the price of petrol shot up 40% overnight. Liquid petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders, which the working class relies on for cooking, were in short supply. Before the war, one cylinder cost ₹800 (US$9 or R141). Now it costs between ₹3,500 and ₹5,000 (US$38-54 or R616-880). It is available only on the black market.
The effect of this greed, created by capitalism, was immediate. Many comrades in Bengaluru were laid off. A mass exodus began in North India. Hundreds of thousands of workers, newly unemployed, began returning to their villages.
Comrades in Chennai, under very difficult conditions, decided to offer Red Flag to the masses. Everywhere we distributed Red Flag, there was renewed interest. Our friends, neighbours, and coworkers wanted to know if there was going to be World War III.
Just as in any war, the workers suffer massively. The lack of fuel and fertilizer leads to widespread starvation. It is happening here more starkly.
Comrades in our auto workers’ collective described how everyone was talking about the war. Lunchtime turned into an opportunity to organize for communism. Usually, the bosses control the short lunch breaks. But now everyone was talking about the LPG shortage. Many workers had to pay for exorbitant private transport to come to work. Many others could not make it. The workers described the LPG shortage as creating a catastrophic crisis and hunger.
Working People Have No Nation
“I hate the US and Israel,” said a long-time Red Flag reader who distributes many papers in his neighbourhood. “They are all for the oil, and they want to steal it from the Iranians. We should support the Iranians.” This began a long ideological struggle among more than thirty comrades who had gathered to hear about our line on the war.
This meeting took place while Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, was negotiating a ceasefire with the US. ICWP comrades had prepared a leaflet, “Billionaires to decide how to attack the working class.” Ghalibaf is a billionaire supported by other billionaires. They have nothing but contempt for our class.
Ghalibaf amassed his billions from oil, media, security, and banks. He has faced serious corruption charges. The infighting in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) over power and money has led to violent police action against oil workers in Esfahan. Ghalibaf was directly involved in this violent suppression. And to cover up his crimes, he floated a charity organization led by his wife, who was also involved in graft.
We read this leaflet together. Reading it aloud shook many people in disbelief. “Are you supporting people like Ghalibaf when you say, ‘You support Iranians?”
The comrade who said he wanted to support ‘Iranians’ said he was mistaken. “There is no way I am going to support him. It reminds me of our own system. There are so much money and corruption involved in the BJP. They sound just like our politicians.”
Another ICWP comrade said, “We are making a fatal mistake by supporting a country. Any country is created by the capitalist bosses to exploit the working class. These two classes cannot peacefully coexist.”
“The oil workers in Iran have more in common with the refinery workers in Noida and Surat who led a violent struggle last month,” said a comrade with friends in North India.
Another comrade had started reading Red Flag with the ICE racist raids in the USA. He said, “I completely agree. The immigrant, undocumented workers in Assam, Kashmir, Bangladesh are just like those brutally attacked by ICE. Today, I have decided to join ICWP. I say no to ICE, no to the capitalist bosses like Ghalibaf, Modi, Trump, and Ayatollah. They are all our enemies. Only the international working class can create a communist society for the masses.”
We concluded our long meeting by asking everyone to take a bundle of Red Flags. We are planning a massive show of support around May Day by doubling our Red Flag circulation to one thousand and forming another collective in Chennai.