KENTUCKY, SEPTEMBER 10—On Thursday, Sept 10th, Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members in Kentucky attended a demonstration put together by students from A Nature Group (ANGr) and Intersectional Feminist Collective in response to the Indian government agreeing to lease land in Kaziranga National Park to a company wanting to build luxury hotels. Concerned about environmental destruction under capitalism and mushrooming fascism from the U.S. to India, these students came together with signs, literature, and music to march through the streets to a local park where speeches were given and traditional Indian chai was shared. Fascism is capitalism in crisis. It is when the system can no longer rely on the illusion of “democracy” in order to maintain itself and must turn to more violent methods, using racist, sexist, and nationalist ideology as a justification.
PL’ers distributed copies of CHALLENGE to the march, stressing the need for working-class solidarity in the face of the climate crisis as capitalist imperialism creates ecological disasters affecting workers everywhere. We also wanted to point out the limits of reform, but a student already brought this up in a speech, saying that class struggle is the most effective means of changing society. PL’ers were there to drive the point further by saying we need class struggle led by a revolutionary communist party not the ballot box. To save the environment we need nothing short of a communist revolution where workers are in charge of all aspects of society, not Democrats, Republicans, or socialists.
Speaking up
Workers in India have been standing up to a fascist government that violently punishes anyone who speaks out, foreshadowing the struggles we will face here in the U.S. as fascism continues to grow.
The main organizer gave a speech at the event, detailing the ecological importance of Kaziranga National Park, not just for the world but for the indigenous people in the area who will be most severely affected by the environmental destruction. Kaziranga is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is home to more than 2200 Indian one-horned rhinoceros, or two-thirds of the world population. It is also a tiger reserve and home to other endangered species.
On top of this the local indigenous have been living in the region for thousands of years and depend on the local ecology for their existence. Particularly the wetlands, grasslands, and mangroves serve to prevent devastating floods. To date at least 45 indigenous families have been forcefully evicted from their homes. To make matters worse, India’s fascist government has been labeling anyone who dares fight back against capitalist development in Kaziranga an “anti-national.” Pranab Doley, an indigenous organizer has been unlawfully imprisoned under the draconian National Security Act for speaking out against the destruction of Kaziranga. He has been denied bail, and the judicial system repeatedly pushed his trial to new arbitrary dates, the whole process amounting to punishment without trial.
This mirrors the way that Native Americans have been treated by the Trump administration as well as showing the arbitrary way in which nationalism divides workers.
Bosses destroying the environment worldwide
When discussing how we can fight back, we talked about many of the differences as well as similarities between India and the U.S. Firstly, a PLer brought up how environmental crises happen all over the world because of capitalism, referencing how land was destroyed in Appalachia in order to mine coal, displacing many people in the area and causing violent flooding that yearly leads to deaths and homelessness. In response to that a student brought up how data centers are also being built in Appalachia, which will drive up energy costs and use lots of water. One important thing that the student leading the event said was that if we were to host an event like this in India, there’s a good chance we could have been detained without trial by fascist state military/police. This was followed up by another student who said that we should fight even harder in the U.S. while we can because our struggle here affects struggles in the rest of the world.
From the hills of Kentucky to the wetlands of Kaziranga, we are fighting the same system. Communist internationalism is the only thing that can take us from fighting small, isolated battles to a world without borders, racist exploitation, climate disaster, or imperialist war. Join the Progressive Labor Party and fight for a future for the working-class, an international communist future!