Kolkata Students Blast Bosses’ Bribes

KOLKATA, INDIA, September 15 — Hundreds of students at a public engineering
university raged in protest at the cricket association’s attempt to privatize one of the campus cricket fields—a seemingly small struggle that reflects a big surge in working-class consciousness and rebellion.
Privatization is the process whereby publicly owned property is given—or rented at a low cost—to private businesses, which then make a profit at the expense of the working class. Such actions by the rulers destroy the illusion of any division between the public and private sectors. In reality, both are controlled by the capitalist bosses.
Bosses’ Bribe Rejected
The association claimed the university’s fields would be turned into “world-class venues” to which students would still have access. They pledged to maintain the upkeep and even build viewing galleries. They also promised this action would lead to more sports development on campus. But we refused to take the bribe!
This is usually a quiet campus; there hasn’t been a major demonstration in more than ten years. Yet today we erupted in protest. Today we forced the dean to call off the deal between the university and the cricket association. Today we asserted working-class student power.
Students Rebel
The cricket field struggle adds to the recent wave of protests and strikes in India. Kolkata in particular has a long history of anti-capitalist militancy. Last year, at least 30,000 students from
Jadavpur University shut down parts of this city of millions to protest cover-ups of sexual abuse and police brutality against students.  
Students at a New Delhi college went on indefinite strike on June 12, when the actor-turned-politician Gajendra Chauhan was appointed chairman of their school. Students are continuing to cripple this premier film university despite the ministry’s effort to pacify them.
Through a communist lens, this is an opportunity to build international solidarity. The protests in Kolkata are part of a fight against capitalism worldwide. It’s up to communists on other campuses — from Chicago to Mexico to Israel — to link their local fightbacks to the uprisings in India.  
Class War Rages
Students are only one part of the working class that’s fighting back. On September 2, as many as 150 million workers from nearly every sector — from banking and insurance to mining, shipping, manufacturing, and transportation — went on a national day-long strike against fascist Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic reforms. Bosses lost $3.7 billion in profits.
Of course, the out-of-power reformist political parties and union misleaders used the strike to build their base of support against Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a Hindu nationalist party currently running the government. The BJP has a mass base in the viciously racist and sexist Hindu nationalist movement, the Hindutva, which bears many similarities to Hitler’s Nazi Party (see CHALLENGE, 2/25/15). While the BJP is openly fascist, the opposition parties and union heads differ only in their strategy. They share the same goal: to maintain a capitalist dictatorship over the working class.
But the workers and students who took the streets in defiance of the police and the capitalist state weren’t out to back one group of politicians over another. Politicians don’t control us! The working class in India is fighting for better working and living conditions. The task of Progressive Labor Party is to show that only a communist
society can meet workers’ needs.
Our movement must follow two key strategies. First, we must make the fight against capitalist divisions front and center. We must reject racist, sexist, ethnic, caste, and religious discrimination—these are the main forces holding back our struggle! Second, we must organize among the masses to become a revolutionary force of hundreds of millions. Progressive Labor Party is building that movement worldwide, from the
Indian subcontinent to Africa to Latin America. We welcome everyone in the working class to add strength, wisdom, and leadership to the struggle to build communism.