Every day 200,000 people leave villages in India looking for jobs in large cities. They have lost their meager land to large capitalists who automate farming. Only 500 of these migrants manage to find work. More than 200 million youths under 25 years old are looking for work, only to find some casual work just a few weeks a year.
Capitalist rulers in India are aware that they are facing masses of angry workers ready to fight. The Hindu fascist BJP government came to power by mass terror against Muslims. Then it unleashed more violence against Muslims and also against Dalit workers (who are Hindu). The rulers hope that fascism, religion, and racist divisions will keep the workers from fighting against capitalism.
About 300 workers and youth have defied this fascism by joining ICWP to fight for communism. They are women, men, Dalits, Muslims and Hindus. This is a small number, but the idea that only communism can end the relentless horrors of capitalism is spreading deep and wide across India.
On several visits, comrades from another country were greeted by enthusiastic workers in six large industrial cities of India to talk about communism. The workers wanted to know the history of ICWP. They were very eager to find out why we will not turn into the fake so-called communist parties they are familiar with.
The workers, their families and friends talked about communism. We had meetings where people whom we’d never met prepared delicious food and arranged for us to stay in their homes. No money changed hands. The only connection we had prior to the visit was Red Flag. They had been eagerly reading every issue of Red Flag.
Our latest visit has made us more resolute to organize and prepare the international working class for communist revolution. In meetings elsewhere of comrades from different countries, we agreed to improve Red Flag by helping more comrades write more articles and letters.
Some comrades are proficient in the internet technology and multimedia. They are planning to create a video based on the ICWP document “Mobilize the Masses for Communism” so that masses can grasp it more easily. We are planning regional ICWP meetings in the near future.
Our modest efforts have shown that if we continue our work with consistency and determination, building very close ties with the working class, our party will grow quickly. Capitalism is in deep crisis. It is a weak system and it is in decline. Our party is the future. Join ICWP now and start building communist collectives!
Crimes against Dalit Women
It is no accident that the rise of hyper-capitalism in India has also seen an increase in crimes against women from oppressed castes (Dalits). Rapes of Dalit women and girls have increased by 65%, kidnappings by 45% and killings by 30%, since 2010, while conviction rates have halved. Capitalism has always used violence, particularly against women, to pave the way for naked theft and genocide. But the working classes are fighting back against Hindu right-wing fascism and capitalist oppression with strikes and marches in the face of enormous state violence. As communists, we can draw inspiration from these struggles and help our oppressed sisters and brothers by fighting to establish the material bases for the liberation of all – the end of the wage system and the end of capitalism.
—a comrade
Mass protests against attacks on Dalits Mumbai, India, January 2018