KOLKATA, INDIA, October 1—Students of Jadavpur University (JU), in the city of Kolkata, have proven that they are equipped to resist the racist and sexist attacks of India’s largest Hindu-fascist student group. They trapped a pro-fascist government minister, resisted the police, and beat back an attempted campus invasion of the fascist scum attempting to retaliate!
The students’ mass bravery shows once again that only mass movements of students and workers can defeat fascist movements. These students’ next target should be the fascist international liberal order (see box). The revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party salutes and stands with the JU students and we call on them to help build a mass international PLP to smash the capitalist system spawning these fascists around the world!
University students unite...
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is a fascist movement. Its racist “Hindutva” or Hindu-only identity politics ideology, backed by racist and sexist violence, was created and funded by Hindu capitalists. RSS organizes among Hindu workers and students to promote fundamentalist religious Hindu policies to split the working class with racism against Muslims, Christians and Dalits (the lowest caste Hindus). The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the political party allied with RSS, which runs the government. In recent years there have been lynchings and other killings of Muslims and Dalits by supporters of RSS.
On the eventful afternoon of September 20, JU’s anti-fascist students exposed a campus event by the ABVP (the student wing of the RSS) for what it was—a pro-fascist political rally pretending to be a welcome meeting for first-year students. Thanks to the antifascist students, hardly anyone attended.
...and explode against fascist scum
The students erupted in protest! They trapped the minister and his bandits for hours before the governor of the state (a Central Representative and RSS stooge) rushed in with a large contingent of police and rescued the minister. During this commotion, hooligans of ABVP broke into the campus and molested female students. They also vandalized and set on fire the Arts Faculty student union room. Condemnation of such a vicious act came from every quarter.
A subsequent attempt by the BJP to storm the JU campus came on September 25. They were resisted by the students, teachers, and other campus workers who jointly formed a human chain numbering in the thousands. Progressive workers of Kolkata in the state of West Bengal stood firmly made vows to resist any future act of aggression by the reactionary Hindutva forces.
Fightback in Kolkata has international consequences
The militant, anti-fascist bravery of these students and workers sets an example for all of us. India is soon to be the most populous country on earth. Meanwhile, the liberal misleadership of the fake “opposition” Congress Party leads the workers and students into the trap of elections and the liberal strain of fascism. History has shown that it is only mass communist-led workers’ movements that can hold back the fascists!
The connections between the class struggle in Kolkata and the international working class are deep, as the sharpening imperialist rivalry between the U.S., Russia, and China threatens our class with all-out war.
While still the world’s most lethal empire, U.S. imperialism is increasingly straining to hold itself together. India’s capitalists are key U.S. imperialist allies countering Chinese imperialism’s growing influence with Pakistan’s capitalists, fueling India and Pakistan’s regional imperialist rivalry over the water-rich region of Kashmir.
Turn mass struggle into revolution
In India, many phony groups have used the word “communism” to betray the working class. We expose these phonies and fight for workers and students to build on the powerful ideas pioneered by scientific communist fighters like Marx and Lenin to create a mass Party with the principles anti-racist and anti-sexist revolutionary communism.The Progressive Labor Party is working internationally to build such a Party. With the leadership of heroic workers and students such as the ones from JU and Kolkata, our Party can unite the working class of the world to resist international fascism and war and destroy capitalism forever.