A recently released report from the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (Every Thirty Minutes, 2011) revealed that farmers in India are committing suicide at a rate of one every thirty minutes. During the past sixteen years, more than a quarter of a million farmers in India have committed suicide: a tragedy due to the ever-growing cycle of debt that U.S. agro-companies like Monsanto force on Indian farmers.

The IMF and World Bank, institutions controlled by U.S. and European imperialists, have forced market liberalization on India which means the elimination of government subsidies and government-backed loans to farmers. The introduction of U.S. agribusiness, particularly Monsanto, into the region has strong-armed many farmers to being dependent on seeds and fertilizers that are far more expensive than local varieties.

This economic imperialism has thrown agriculture in India into crushing poverty with most farmers making only $250 for an entire year of labor. Many of those who have committed suicide have done so by consuming the very pesticides that put them into so much debt. These victims of capitalism have left heart-wrenching suicide notes addressed to the Indian Prime Minister begging for assistance.

History of Imperialism

But as all capitalists are loyal only to profits, the Indian government has continued to pursue these murderous reforms. This story mirrors the history of Western imperialism in India that is soaked in the blood of the working class.

When British imperialists first visited India in the 18th century they commented on the country’s immense wealth. In 1757 one Briton described Dacca in Bengal as being as “extensive, populous, and rich as the city of London.” Another observer described the region as “a wonderful land, whose richness and abundance neither war, pestilence, nor oppression could destroy.” A 1918 report of the British Royal Industrial Commission remarked that “the industries of India were far more advanced than those of the West up to the advent of the industrial revolution.”

With Britain’s official declaration of dominance over India in 1793, all that changed. Indian industry was systematically destroyed, much of it carted off back to Britain. By 1840 the population of Dacca had fallen from 150,000 to 30,000. Writing in 1835 a British official wrote of India, “The misery hardly finds a parallel in the history of commerce. The bones of the cotton-weavers are bleaching the plains of India.” In the final years of British imperial control conditions worsened. Between 1881 and 1939 life expectancy dropped in India from 30 years to a mere 23 years.

This history of imperialist murder has called out for workers there to join the communist movement and indeed many great communist leaders such as Rajani Palme Dutt came from India.

Workers in India have a great legacy of fighting imperialism, but if they ever hope to smash the imperialist menace that has haunted them for more than 200 years they need to link arms with the international revolutionary communist party, PLP. Only workers uniting together under the banner of communism can smash capitalism and its racist murderous imperial system once and for all.

Members of the recently-reorganized Culture Committee of PL continue to struggle over ideas for presentations to counter the bourgeois culture that surrounds us with the hatreds and anti-working-class propaganda of the ruling class and their mass media.  Our discussion reviewed the pre-May Day event we organized in April. 

We conceived of the idea of a No Borders event to counter the vicious attacks upon undocumented immigrants called “illegal” or “alien” by the bosses’ press. As was pointed out at a demonstration in Staten Island, “How could anyone from the Earth be an alien?”  If anyone is alien, it’s the bosses who don’t care if workers live or die. They use us like pawns, an important cultural understanding. We produced the show, touching on the many facets of anti-immigrant propaganda that are becoming prevalent through media outlets and popular culture in the United States.

We opened the show with a little musical presentation that spoke to the need to smash all borders. Our poetry and song reflected the common humanity of ordinary people struggling in the face of the enormous obstacles that the rulers create to stop us from uniting. The show went on with excerpts from Paul Robeson’s speech made at the Peace Bridge on the Canadian border because Robeson was not allowed to leave the U.S. 

There was a great rendition of the Langston Hughes poem “Good Morning Revolution,” spoken by many voices from the audience.  An original poem from Haiti was read in both Kreyol and English.  Our historical PL photo exhibit was also on display.  The evening was a resounding success.

Next Event: The Fight Against Sexism

We are now moving on to organize another event with a theme of anti-sexism, and want to expand the committee to reflect the diversity of the Party. We are also developing a youth chorus to perform popular and revolutionary songs.

We are all positive about the possibility of developing the cultural work in the Progressive Labor Party. The tasks ahead are not easy, but the joy that the No Borders evening brought to the audience, the performers, and the organizers was evident. Since our reorganization, the committee has presented a variety music show as a fundraiser against racist police violence. It included a photographic exhibition of historical PL, anti-racist, and pro-communist struggle, along with a revue of song and poetry on the theme of No Borders.

Join with us to develop the youth chorus and expand the cultural work that can inspire workers to smash the racist, sexist, and individualistic culture that capitalist rulers try to use to keep workers divided and passive.  Our communist voices will be heard!J (Anyone interested in joining the committee should contact us through plp.org.)

PAKISTAN, May 13 — Sanitation workers are the most exploited workers in Pakistan. They live in miserable conditions with slave wages, no security, no pension and no benefits. Parents and children live together in small mud-made dwellings covered with leaves, with one room consisting of a kitchen, living and bedroom. Sanitation workers also suffer special prejudices — they are prohibited from eating or drinking with other people if they do not bring their own cups and dishes. Strikes have begun against these conditions.

They start work early morning and labor for 18 hours for slave wages, without proper equipment like gloves or boots. Permanent workers are paid only 5,000 Pakistani Rupees (PKR) (59 US$) per month; temporary workers get PKR 4,000 (47 US$). If they have an on-the-job accident, they cannot get medical treatment and can be fired anytime. Female domestic workers face violence and sexual attacks. There are no weekends or holidays in their lives —they live just to serve.

Many sanitation workers thus suffer from health problems produced by working conditions. Some suffer from blindness. Skin and breathing problems are very common but there is no free medical treatment or any other benefit. When sick they cannot remain in their small dwellings; if they do not work they cannot eat.

The sanitation workers are labeled “minorities.” Their “representatives” in parliament are the wealthy who never visit their dwellings. The religious institutions are also silent about these workers’ wretched exploitation. Both the politicians and religious officials just protect the interests of the rich bosses.

Organizing A Union to Fight Back

A small Pakistani town contains 220 families (about 2,000 people). Many have been attacked by landowners, chasing them from temporary living areas. About five years ago, the workers formed the Sanitation Workers Association (SWA). They began organizing strikes and sit-ins to get a piece of land on which to live. Despite brutal torture and starvation they maintained these strikes and won a 15x15-yard piece of land for each family. However, this land is about 1.6 miles away from the town and has no electricity, water or road, making it difficult to reach the town where they work. Of course, without water and electricity they cannot live there. They demanded infrastructure but the administration refused, saying the government has no money. We must organize strikes and militant actions against this special type of fascism.

After the October 2005 earthquake, the SWA won an allotment of 57 houses but these houses cannot resist severe weather, another example of the corruption of the politicians and authorities. Workers are organizing a strike against the district administration which is controlled by corrupt politicians.

PLP is struggling with these workers to understand that without smashing the exploitative capitalist system, workers cannot rid our class of this poverty and homelessness. A comrade and a few friends of the Party have distributed a leaflet linking this misery facing these sanitation workers to the need for a communist revolution to change the situation.

Such an international communist revolution is no easy task; it needs the firm commitment of workers to an international communist party, PLP.J

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the I.M.F., has a long history of sexual assaults without any repercussions. But when he raped a West African hotel housekeeping worker in New York earlier this month, he was abruptly thrown in jail and charged with seven felony counts—but only because he had recently threatened U.S. monetary and imperial interests.

The racist rape of entire countries has been a chief purpose of the I.M.F since its creation in 1969. The agency imposes harsh, budget-slashing programs to impoverish and starve workers in less powerful capitalist nations and to safeguard profits for the U.S., European, and Asian investors that the I.M.F represents. Strauss-Kahn’s downfall stems from sharpening competition among these imperialists, not from any concern for his victim on the part of U.S. rulers.

Strauss-Kahn’s Biggest Crime: Allying with China

Strauss-Kahn’s indictment, drawn up under Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., a U.S. imperialist blueblood, contains many lurid details. But Strauss-Kahn’s most offensive act, to U.S. bosses, came last year in a speech in Washington. Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported (2/10/11), “Strauss-Kahn... has called for a new world currency that would challenge the dominance of the dollar.”

In the shadow of the White House and Pentagon, Strauss-Kahn was advancing anti-U.S. heresy. He proposed that world trade be conducted in a revived I.M.F.-sanctioned instrument called Special Drawing Rights (SDR), an interest-bearing international reserve asset created by the I.M.F. to supplement other reserve assets of member countries.

Last year, Strauss-Kahn urged that the I.M.F’s “basket” money — composed of the dollar, the pound sterling, the euro and the yen — be broadened to include others such as the Chinese yuan. To expand SDR in this way would devalue the dollar and enable countries to buy SDR instead of U.S. treasury bonds. More significantly, the proposed use of this basket as the international currency of choice would threaten the dominance of the U.S. ruling class and enhance the influence of its chief economic rival, China.

In February, Strauss-Kahn publicly addressed this proposed change. Later that month, he appointed Zhu Min, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, as his “special advisor.” Two months after that, racist NYPD thugs were parading a handcuffed Strauss-Kahn through the streets.

U.S. Capitalists Capitalize on Strauss-Kahn’s Scandal, Seek Control of I.M.F.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner demanded that Strauss-Kahn step down at once. He did, behind the prison bars of Rikers Island. Immediately, a former vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase, John Lipsky, took over as interim head of the I.M.F.

U.S. rulers, capitalizing on the temporary tenure of pro-U.S. leaders Sarkozy in France and Merkel in Germany, are now in a position to name the next long-term I.M.F chief. The New York Times, the leading mouthpiece of the same dominant, imperialist wing of U.S. capitalists that runs JPMorgan Chase, editorialized (5/21/11) about various pro-U.S. prospects: “Ms. [Christine] Lagarde, who would be the first woman to hold the job, has the experience and many other strong qualities. But there are other talented candidates to consider, including Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore’s finance minister and chairman of the I.M.F.’s financial committee, and Arminio Fraga Neto, a former head of Brazil’s central bank.”

French finance minister Lagarde, a Sarkozy ally, toiled for decades as a partner in Baker & McKenzie, the top U.S. law firm in the crucial Mideast-North Africa region. The bankers from Singapore and Brazil both belong to the Group of Thirty, a pro-U.S. global monetary policy forum founded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and chaired by ex-Chase Manhattan economist and Obama adviser, Paul Volcker. The Group of Thirty has been a leading advocate of “reform” of the I.M.F.

Obama & Co. believe that they’ve scored a double victory. Disgraced and under armed guard in New York, Strauss-Kahn had until recently led the field opposing Sarkozy in the coming presidential election in France. U.S. imperialists now have a better chance to sustain Sarkozy-style French cooperation in murderous, U.S.-led military action, like NATO’s hellfire in Libya.

Capitalists rape workers by the billions every day. They exploit us with lousy pay, enforced by swelling racist unemployment. They kill and maim us through their police terror and wars. It is indeed high time for change. But we don’t mean reshuffling bosses to suit one imperialist rival over another, as with the booting of Strauss-Kahn. Only communism can destroy the source of all of these assaults, the profit system itself.J