Communist Revolution Will Defeat Sexism and Fascism
January 6 — Over six million in the southern state of Kerala, India, mostly working-class women, joined hands to form a human wall that stretched 600 km (373 miles) north to south. This and other demonstrations of women and men in Kerala are responses to violent sexist attacks by the fascist ruling party of India (BJP) and its militia.
A Hindu temple in Kerala had, for centuries, denied entry to women of reproductive age. The supreme court of India recently declared this practice illegal. But sexist/racist religious groups have physically attacked women trying to enter the temple.
Few of the millions actually want to worship at the temple. They are fighting against the reactionary religious ideology that has long justified gender inequality: “We won’t go back!”
But the material basis of sexism is class society. Today it is capitalism. To keep from moving backward we need to move forward to a classless communist society that alone can end sexism.
This massive and defiant “wall of women” in the face of fascist attacks has galvanized the working class. We need to urgently inject communist politics into this movement and propose the communist solution to the rise of fascism.
The state of Kerala is ruled by a fake communist party (CPI-M) that relies on reform and elections to fight capitalism and its violent attacks on the working class.
Fascism is internal to capitalism in crisis and decline. This is the desperate attempt by the bosses to save their system of profit and exploitation. Fascism can only be defeated by smashing capitalism.
The state of Kerala has a long and rich history of fighting British colonialism and capitalism with revolutionary communist leadership. The old communist party’s mistake was fighting for socialism or just for limited reforms. Many workers have rejected this and are now looking for the alternative offered by the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP).
An ICWP member and a regular distributor of Red Flag reached out to several women who participated in the wall of women. Many eagerly talked about need to form a strong ICWP that will not rely on the electoral circus. Instead it will lead the masses to destroy all capitalist bosses.
The discussion pointed out that masses of workers are not satisfied with the reformist politics of CPI-M. They are looking for a true alternative and ICWP has a huge opportunity. Everybody agreed that we need to publish Red Flag in the local languages.
One woman said, “All my life I have dreamed about living a life without the bosses, a society where we help each other, we raise our children who will not suffer violence, sexism, caste discrimination and religious manipulation and blind faith. I also know that such a communist society is possible but it cannot happen by itself. It needs a party. I did not know that such a party existed. I am very eager to know more about ICWP because I want to join in this fight.”
This comrade has expressed the sentiments and aspirations of masses around the world. We must seize opportunities like these to build a mass ICWP with fierce tenacity and resolve. We can make a significant advance in building our party by making our collectives stronger by recruiting more and developing more communists.
Four years ago, women who work in the tea plantations of Kerala went on a strike. They said, “We pick the tea and carry the bags on our shoulders, you (the bosses) carry off the money bags.”
The working class produces everything. We don’t need the bosses and their money to distribute what we have produced.
At that time, friends of ICWP made some contacts with the strikers. The recent “Wall of Women” inspired our friends to reconnect with these workers. They were very happy to talk about ICWP. But they also said we should be there regularly and very consistently. We take this criticism seriously. We are looking into ways of producing ICWP literature in the local languages and then guaranteeing its distribution.
Read Our Pamphlet:
THE COMMUNIST FIGHT AGAINST SEXISM
at icwpredflag.org/sxse.pdf
