El 27 de noviembre, es el aniversario del nacimiento de Edith Lagos,
recordamos a una reconocida militante del Partido Comunista del Perú, ejemplo a
seguir por su indoblegable lucha consecuente hasta el último aliento.
Ayer como hoy estas al lado del pueblo, militas ahí en el
corazón de las nuevas generaciones que han de continuar aquella lucha de la que
saldremos victoriosos ineluctablemente.
Esta
imagen desmiente claramente los argumentos de que el Partido Comunista
del Perú es un grupo sectario, que actuaba al margen
de la población. Desmiente la teoria de pueblo entre dos fuegos.
Esta imagen es del entierro de Edith Lagos, donde segun
estimaciones periodisticas de la época datan que asistieron cerca de 30
mil personas a su entierro.
En la imagen pueden ver el feretro abrigado por una bandera roja con el logotipo de la hoz y el martillo.
Toda la poblacion de Ayacucho bajo para darle el ultimo adios a una querida combatiente del partido comunista del Perú.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Poema de Edith Lagos:
Hierba Silvestre
De lo alto de la montaña
al lado de una inerte piedra
al aroma de las hierbas silvestres
le pregunto:
¿Cuánto falta para que el río
aumente su caudal?
Para que tormentosamente arrase
este cruel presente.
[...]
pregunto yo a los remolinos:
¿Por qué te diriges al sur?
¿Qué quieres arrasar?
La inequidad del pasado
posada allí.
[...
Pero la inercia quedó atrás
encendidos están tus sentimientos.
Hierba silvestre, aroma puro
te ruego acompañarme en mi camino
serás mi bálsamo en mi tragedia
serás mi aliento en mi gloria.
Serás mi amiga
cuando crezcas
sobre mi tumba.
Allí: que la montaña me cobije
que el río me conteste
la pampa arda,
el remolino vuelva, el camino descanse
¿y la piedra?
[...]
La piedra lápida eterna será en ella
grabado,
¡todo quedará!...
The
following is a report about activities carried out in Switzerland for
the international action day in support of the Indian revolution. It has
been sent to the Communist Party of India (Maoist) through the
International Committee to Support the People’s War in India, its
Italian section, the Galician Committee to Support the People’s War in
India, as well as other channels. We hope that it will strengthen the
morale of all those fighting in India, just as the people’s war in India
constantly strengthens our morale.
Answering
the call of the Spokesperson of the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of India (Maoist) to „Make Successful the International Action Day
on November 24th in Opposing the Prahaar Military Campaign Operated by the Fascist Modi Government!“1, socialist revolutionaries in Switzerland have carried out several activities in the days leading up to the 24th of November — the 10th anniversary
of the martyrdom of Comrade Kishenji, a leader of the Communist Party
of India (Maoist) — activities which we hereby document for publication
by the international committees supporting the people‘s war in India as
well as for circulation in the ranks of the Indian comrades and
colleagues, serving to boost their fighting morale.
Living
in a country of three nations, with a high proportion of proletarian
migrants and which is the center of imperialist international diplomacy,
we, the socialist revolutionaries of Switzerland take proletarian
internationalism as the starting point of all of our actions. All of our
work serves to develop the socialist revolution in this country — which
is naturally a part of and serves the international working class
revolution – with our goal being a red Switzerland, a socialist council
republic, as a red barricade and base area for the world revolution and
as an ideological-political battlefield for communism. We consider that
the people‘s war in India, being the most advanced in the world and one
among the three people‘s wars currently being waged in the world (aside
from on the Philippines and in Burma2),
shows that Asia is indeed the weakest link in the imperialist chain
today, that in India the chain is breaking and a new world is being
born, and that to support and learn from the Indian revolution is a
major task for all communists and revolutionaries in the world today.
Grasping the key role of the people‘s war in India today, the 1st Plenum
of the Provisional Central Committee of the Communist Party of
Switzerland (Red Faction) — the faction which is working to rebuild and
refound the Communist Party of Switzerland as a marxist-leninist-maoist,
militarized and bolshevized communist party of a fighting type for the
class war for socialist revolution in Switzerland — has adopted a
resolution titled: „Long Live the Indian Revolution!“3, from which we quote the following passage:
„Imperialism
is, and continues to be, the eve of the proletarian revolution. Slowly
but surely though, even if it may seem to some that we are destined to
die in the dark of night of imperialism, a red sun is rising in the
East, in India, that guides us towards humanities bright future. The
working class, the masses and the peoples of the world will defeat
imperialism, and make the worldwide strategic offensive of the
international working class revolution a reality. Today, we can clearly
see that this goal, that so many have already sacrificed their life and
freedom for, can only be achieved through people‘s war, the
revolutionary strategy which will also be used to defend the revolution,
the socialist system, once it reigns victorious. And the struggle for
communism will not stop there, because socialism is not a consolidated
system, but a transitional phase from class to classless society, a
revolutionary process of socialist construction and uninterrupted
proletarian cultural revolution. Our demands are quite simple: all we
want is the Earth. An Earth without classes, without patriarchy, with no
exploitation of human by human. All we want is communism. And we know
that the Swiss and Indian communist stand on the same side of the
barricade in this fight. To have comrades like this is an honor to us.
The
people‘s war in India is the most decisive battle for the liberation of
the working class and the liberation of all of humanity being waged
today. The red flag flying over countless revolutionary people‘s
committees all over India is not merely the flag of the Indian working
class, the Indian masses or the Indian people. No, it is our red flag as
well. The flag of the international working class, the flag of
communism.“
Now to some of the activities carried out.
On the evening of Sunday the 21st of November, 2021, the Communist Youth League of Switzerland (Refounding Committee)4 and the anti-fascist neighborhood initiative Fight Back! convened
a clandestine mass meeting in a worker‘s and poor neighbourhood on the
outskirts of a major Swiss city. There was a buffet of Indian food,
which people could pay whatever they wanted/could for. Mobilization was
done through a leaflet explaining the situation unfolding in India,
which was distributed through a broad network of people in less than a
week, and included the instructions to give the leaflets to other
trustworthy people who want societal change once people are done
reading. The method of mobilization utilized was a complete success, and
allowed the spread of a good number of leaflets both within large
workplaces and worker‘s and poor neighbourhoods, and put the people‘s
war in India on the agenda in the hearts and minds of many young
proletarians and semi-proletarians. Besides the masses mobilized to the
convened meeting, others, who could not attend due to mostly long work
hours, were mobilized for different actions and activities, or asked to
join communist study groups. All the masses present at the meeting — who
ranged from being democrats to progressives up to being socialist
revolutionaries — belonged either to the proletariat or the
semi-proletariat, and most had never attended a revolutionary mass
meeting before, or were generally new to revolutionary politics.
A
short presentation was held, denouncing the exploitation and misery of
the old India and the perspective of a new India, as well as the Prahaar-3 „encirclement
and annihilation“ campaign, which is not a social programme but a
genocidal campaign. One of the masses present stated that he learned
more in that short presentation — not just about India — than he ever
did in 10 years of the capitalist school system. This presentation has
been reworked as a document by the Communist Youth League and is
reproduced as an appendix to this report.
Afterwards, a short documentary film, India‘s Red Tide5,
was shown and discussed. The film made a tremendous impact on the
people present, and led to a very productive discussion about not just
the necessity, but also the strategy and tactics of revolutionary war.
There
was also a lot of exchange and ranting about exploitation at the
workplace and everyone‘s different exploitative bosses. Besides that,
the need of reading communist theory was discussed, which led to an
entirely new study group being founded with the masses present.
The
progressive masses especially emphasized that we need an organization
like the Communist Party of India (Maoist) here as well. This was
deepened by revolutionaries, who explained that such a Party used to
exist here as well, but that it was liquidated by opportunists and lying
politicians. The history of the Communist Party of Switzerland was
briefly explained, and the conversation then led into the importance of
refounding such a Party already now so that the Swiss working class will
be ready for the challenges to come, brought about by climate change,
imperialist reindustrialization and imperialist war of aggression in the
coming decade.
At the end of the mass meeting, a member of the revolutionary rap collective Yenan performed a number of new songs, one of which celebrated the great advances of the people‘s war in India. This song — Lal Salaam — has now been released as a single from Yenan‘s upcoming E.P.6
Besides
the leaflet that was spread, there was also several posters produced or
reproduced by different organizations. One of them was a poster
produced by our website for the 1st of May with the slogan „Support the People’s War in India!“. Both the Communist Youth League (Refounding Committee) and Fight Back! also
printed posters, the former in support of the people‘s war in India,
the latter calling for freedom of the revolutionary and anti-fascist
prisoner G. N. Saibaba. We publish files of the posters here, that have
been sent to us by the colleagues.
At
an unspecified date, time and location, an armed agitation and
propaganda action was executed. gathered around an Irish bonfire — a
more than three meter tall structure built from various flammable
materials, such as wood, „decorated“ with the flags of the imperialist
superpowers (the U.S., Russia and China) and of Swiss imperialism, as
well as the faces of the Indian fascist politicians Narendra Modi, Amit
Shaw and Mohan Bhagwat — which was burned, showing the masses‘
indignation against the genocidal Prahaar-3 „encirclement and annihilation“ campaign, which is bound to fail, just as Operation Green Hunt did. Thus, the call to „burn the effigies of Modi, Amit Shaw and Bhagwat and expose their repressive plan“ by
the Indian comrades was fulfilled. This action had a military
character, which clearly shows how the support for the people‘s wars
abroad is helping to strengthen and militarize the revolutionary
movement in Switzerland itself. Different slogans were shouted in
Swiss-German during the action, and the masses who were participating
were encouraged by an agitator to join in. The slogans include:
The attacks of the State won‘t lead anywhere! Support the people‘s war in India!
Against their genocide, resistance everywhere!
Resistance means class struggle! Lal salaam, lal salaam!
Long live international solidarity!
Additionally,
the agitator shouted the names of different imperialist and fascist
politicians, to which the colleagues present answered with „class
enemy!“ after every name was called.
Finally,
our Editorial Board wishes to extend our warmest revolutionary,
internationalist greetings to the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of India (Maoist), its Spokesperson Comrade Abhay and its General
Secretary Comrade Basavraj, to all the directors, cadres and militants
of the Party, to the commanders and fighters of the People‘s Liberation
Guerrilla Army, to all the masses of people who are living in the
revolutionary people‘s committees of Dandakaranya, Bihaar and Jharkand
today, and to all the colleagues in other countries who are carrying out
actions to support the people‘s war in India. The Indian people will
inevitably triumph and the red sun will shine over all of India.
SUPPORT THE PEOPLE‘S WAR IN INDIA!
DOWN WITH THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY PRAHAAR-3 CAMPAIGN!
Switzerland, 24.11.2021 EDITORIAL BOARD THE RED FLAG
APPENDIX 1
THE ATTACKS OF THE STATE WON‘T ACHIEVE ANYTHING! SUPPORT THE PEOPLE‘S WAR IN INDIA!
Speech
delivered in the name of the Communist Youth League of Switzerland
(Refounding Committee) at a Clandestine mass meeting denouncing the
Indian State‘s Prahaar-3 „encirclement and annihilation“ campaign against the people‘s war
We
are often told, that India is a poor country, but that‘s not exactly
right. India is not poor, no, India is a rich country; rich in
resources, mineral reserves and with a labour power of hundreds of
millions of people. India wasn‘t always poor, and India will not always
be poor. The problem is, that India is being kept in poverty, because
the profit extracted from India‘s work force, resources and mineral
reserves does not go to India itself, the profit doesn‘t go to the
Indian people. The absolute majority of people in the country with the
second largest population of the world – 1,3 billion inhabitants – are
living in misery. The large majority are simple workers and poor
peasants.
We
know the story of workers, working in sweatshops since age 13, for 12
hours a day, 7 days a week, in cancercausing factories, while H&M is
balling in cash cause of it. And what can you afford with this?
Nothing. No apartment, not even shitty ones like this one here, so
you‘re stuck in a shantytown at the outskirts of the city, without a
sewage system, without any air conditioning, without running water,
living in mudhouses. And when people want to resist, protest,
demonstrate, they are beaten by the cops of shot by the military.
Indian
peasants are different than the ones we know here. They don‘t have a
farm, or a tractor. They live in medieval conditions, belonging in all
but words to the landowner, having to work on the land belonging to him
as if they were machines. They are not payed anythong for this and they
only get enough food to continue making the landlord rich.
The
conditions of women in India are just as miserable. They are either
bound to the kitchen through arranged, forced marriages and death
threats or thrown into the brothel, where they are raped day in day out
either as street prostitutes or in the porn industry; if they are not
sold as sex slaves for a disgusting, rich man in Europe or the USA.
Muslims
are second-rate citiziens in India. The Indian State sees them as
subhuman. Even though 150 million muslims live in India, the goverment
still insists that India has no place for them, seeing as India,
according to them, is a hindu nation. But those 150 million muslims are
not the only muslims stemming from India. There is more than 100 million
muslims who were driven out of India through violence, persecution and
the burning of their mosques and who had to flee to Pakistan and
Bangladesh, and who are still waiting to return.
Additionally,
India is a caste society. That means, that one is born into different
groups, that either have a bad or a good standing in society. The
craziest example of this are the „untouchables“ and that means what you
think it does. They are not allowed to have contact with the rest of
society, are prohibited from having jobs, apartments etc. That means,
that they have to live in the dirt, until an untimely death.
Queers
in India – queer means gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender etc. – are
driven into the worst parts of the slum, sometimes they even have to
sleep in graveyards. For most of them the only job possibility is
prostitution, be that „religious“ or otherwise.
Every
day, old people die, kick the bucket, because their families can no
longer afford to feed them. And every day, it becomes clearer and
clearer to the youth of India, that they have no future, no perspective,
in this system.
And
who profits? It‘s pretty clear. It‘s the foreign big companes, the
capitalists of other countries. The Indian capitalists are completely
dependant off them, and that‘s why they sell the country and its riches
to them. This is how capitalism in other countries gehts rich off the
underdevelopment and the exploitation of the Indian masses and nature.
India is poor, because the country has always been fucked by foreign
capitalists.
The
position India finds itself in has its origins several hundred years.
Back then the Brits treated themselves to a monopoly on the exploitation
of India, back then India was their colony. That is to say, that they
politically and economically controlled and robbed India. Then, India
became formally „independant“, but not that much has changed since then.
Because, while India may not be a colony anymore, it is still a
semi-colony. That means, that India is merely politically independant
but is still economically controlled and exploited. The occupiers may
have pissed off in words, but they‘re still just as economically strong
as always. Today, British capitalism no longer has a monopoly and India
is exploited by all capitalist powers. Including Swiss capitalism, Swiss
capital, that is also getting its hands dirty. Swiss mining companies
burn a gigantic amount of rainforest and displace the villagers and
indigenous people living there, with the goal of establishing mines,
where peole can work themselves to death, all for their profit. Or
Nestlé, that illegally tests baby food on newborn children of poor
people, who have to go along to not starve.
But
who makes it possible for these pigs to continue pulling this off? The
answer is a simple one: the rulers of India. Because India is not the
„biggest democracy in the world“ as is often claimed. No, India is a
dictatorship of the rich, the capitalists and landlords, where most
people have jackshit to say. In the end, it is only a small group of
people who run things in India, mainly it is Modi, the prime minister.
Modi is a hindu nazi. His party, the BJP (which stands for Indian
People‘s Party) was founded by a Hitler-fan. He sees the hindus as
aryans and thinks that all other groups, be that the adivasis (India‘s
indigenous people) or muslims need to be cleansead, that is to say
murdered. Because appearently, there is no space for them in the
„biggest democracy in the world“. Before he became prime minister, Modi
was the govener of the federal state Gujarat. There, he carried out mass
murder of muslims. And that‘s something he is proud of! According to
his own admissions, 2,000 muslims were killed, and 120,000 werde
displaced, had to flee. He also passed a law, that legalized burying
women alive alongside their dead husbands.
But
how do they justify all of this? How can it be, that there is hundreds
of millions of people, that are so exploited and that there is not even
more of them fighting? The State does not just rule through the stick,
but through the carrot as well. We often hear about Gandhi, in school we
are told that we should struggle like him, that he is a „role model“.
But what does Gandhi say? He says that all violence is bad, that one
should only struggle peacefully. He, for example, equates the violence
of murdering cops with the resistance against them. Because Gandhi, who
founded the Indian State, is a diehard defender of the system prevailing
in India today. Gandhi represents an old, corrupt, outdated India. The
India of exploitation and oppression, that we have talked about so much
now.
How
are you even suppossed to change anything peacefully in India? Even the
slightest attempt to change society, not to mention radically
transforming it, is criminalized, and declared „terrorism“. Even
fighting peacefully already lands you in jail, gets you beaten up, shot.
Not to mention, if you fight and resist with violence. The „Police
Measures Against Terrorism“ law here in Switzerland was copied from
India, from the „Unlawful Activites Act“. There, just as here, every
attempt to truly change the system is considered terrorism.
That‘s
why the people, who truly want to change India, don‘t insicribe Gandhi,
but Mao Tse-tung on their banners. Because Mao, the leader of the
Chinese revolution, says the exact opposite of what Ghandi says. Mao
explains: „There
are innumerable principles of Marxism, but in the final analysis they
can all be summed up in one sentence: ‚To rebel is justified.‘ For
thousands of years everyone said: „Oppression is justified, exploitation
is justified, rebellion is not justified.“ From the time that Marxism
appeared on the scene, this old judgment was turned upside down, and
this is a great contribution. This principle was derived by the
proletariat from its struggles, but Marx drew the conclusion.“
It
is under this banner that a new India is being built up. An India, that
has nothing to do with Ghandi‘s or Modi‘s India, where you have to turn
the other cheek after the state beats the crap out of you, but an
India, that‘s truly democratic; where the peasants own the land they
work on; where the working class is not sacrificed for profits; where
women have the same rights; an India without a caste system; where
muslims and adivasis are not treated like subhumans.
In
the heart of India, here and now, this new world, this new India is
being born. And it is being born through revolution. A revolution basing
itself on the millions strong movement called the naxalite movement.
The
whole thing is led by the Communist Party of India (Maoist). It‘s not a
party, like the ones we know, full of fake politicions that run for
election on fake promise. Because the CPI (Maoist) is a fighting party, a
party of a new type, that fights for the revolution. A party that
lives, works and fights alongside with the people and doesn‘t just
ignore them. That does politics with and for the people, to defend and
strenghten their rights. Some of the struggles they‘ve directed, for
example, is the largest strike in human history, with a participation of
200 million people. They also direct the struggles of the indigenous
people and peasants in the countryside against deforestation and
displacement in the interest of big companies, a struggle that is
similar to our struggle against gentrification and rising rents.
The
revolution is a people‘s war, a revolutionary war against the Indian
state, who sees the people‘s war as the biggest threat for the internal
security since the founding of Indian, and the USA calls the CPI
(Maoist) as the third most dangerous „terrorist“ organization in the
world.
In
the people‘s war, the cops are shot, areas are liberated a true,
revolutionary democratic government is built up, where every post is
elected and can constantly be recalled, if somebody does not represent
the people. There is free healthcare; equal rights for all oppressed;
the peasants own the land that they work on. The corrupt politicians,
landowners and the big foreign companies are kicked out of the liberated
areas.
The
revolution begun in 1967 with the Naxalbari movement. That‘s also where
the term naxalite comes from. There was a big uprising there at the
time, in a village. The leader of this uprising was Charu Majumdar. For
years, Charu Majumdar fought the opportunists and fake politicians, that
did not want the revolution, but cushy parliamentary seats. They
claimed, that society could be fundamentally changed through the
election of „leftist“ or „communist“ parties. Because he consistently
worked for the revolution, he was arrested and tortured to death. His
untimely death lead to decades long problems, the Party split apart, and
the revolution was weakened. But today it is up and running again, and
running better than ever before, ever since the Party was refounded in
2004. This concretely means, that up to 50 million people live in areas,
where the state is either being expelled or areas where it has already
been expelled, and a new society has been built up. Right now, the
naxalites are carrying out a plan, that has the concrete goal of
liberating an area of 200 million people. They will live under
revolutionary democracy in the next couple of years.
The
response of the fascists, the Nazis, to this is and always has been
mass murder. 2005, the Indian State initiated its „Operation Green
Hunt“. The military, the cops and the snitches were sent into all areas,
where the revolution was strong. The goal was the mass murder of all
those who wanted a new, better India. Thousands were murdered. But they
failed!
The
revolution hit back, and the military went from one defeat to another.
Even though they kept sending new cops and snitches into the areas, they
were hit back, defeated. The campaign failed.
Now
they are putting on the whole puppet show once more, under a democratic
disguise. They‘re calling this new military operation „Prahaar 3“.
They‘re trying to pass it off as a social programm for the areas where
the revolution is strongest. At the end of the day this campaign is no
different than the last one. What is being prepared with this plan is
another, worse mass murder. A large part of this so-called social
programme is the imprisionment of peasants in so-called „police camps“,
that is to say concentration camps, where they are surveilled 24/7 by
the cops.
We
have to show solidarity with the Indian revolution, that‘s for sure.
But not because we‘re humanist and also not in the #thoughtsandprayers
fashion so common today – but because they‘re fighting the same enemy
over there that we also have: Swiss capitalism, and capitalism
generally. Those who finance deforestation over there, who finance those
factories with the work working conditions, are the same people, that
want to raise our rents here, that exploit us at our workplaces. It‘s
the same capitalism, and its the same bastards getting dirty rich off
it.
In
order to make Switzerland a truly just and democratic country we – the
working class – have to empower ourselves, have to take power into our
own hands. Democracy in the 21st century,
that‘s socialism, a society under the rule of our class – of the
workers, the wage dependant. And we will only reach socialism through a
revolutionary like the one in India, through a revolutionary war, a
class war. And we need an organisation, a fighting party that can make
the revolution. A party like the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
There was already a party like this in Switzerland, but it was betrayed
by opportunists and fake politicians that only wanted parliamentary
seats. That‘s why we have to refound the Communist Party of Switzerland.
And we don‘t just want to fight socialism, but also for communism. A
new world, one without exploitation and oppression, without classes, a
State or patriarchy. Side by side with out Indian colleagues. Everything
else is bullshit.
APPENDIX 2
LAL SALAAM
We work our asses off every day But still can’t afford Balenciaga But that’s quite alright ’cause We’d rather shout “freedom for the Gaza strip!” With red bandanas and balaclavas covering our faces, our US-hatred unites us And if you think there’s no grounds for hope Then check out what the PLGA is doing
That’s the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (Led by the CP) that wants to see a new India Ambush attacks until the cops fuck off And in the vacuum, a people’s state is built up No more working for the landlord Under the reds the soil belongs to the peasants „but a few freed masses don’t faze the enemy one bit!“ And what about 200 million?
HOOK: And when the masses win in the whole country Everywhere in the world, one will hear „lal salaam!“ Workers „lal salaam!“, peasants „lal salaam!“ Peoples „lal salaam!“, comrades „lal salaam!“ Red greetings from north-western Switzerland to Ankara And everywhere in the world „lal salaam!“ Workers „lal salaam!“, peasants „lal salaam!“ Peoples „lal salaam!“, comrades „lal salaam!“
The state is super scared, and is trying ith a lot of guns To force the comrades on their knees, they call the terror „Green Hunt“ These massacres are financed by the Yankees man Just like Modi, a fascist like Guisan But what connects the murdering rich Is that their perspective is vanishing They try and tell us „there’s no use in rebelling, Because if you go and riot, you’re just as bad!“
But voting? Referendums? We don’t see any sense in that There needs to be retribution for every Verdingkind7 And for every infant that is abused by Nestlé to test the effects of new baby food in India But especially instead of the old, there needs to be A state that belongs to us and that we set up like the comrades Then we will abolish classes and patriarchy You get what you need and do what you can
BRIDGE: [The old world is a murky castle in the swamp But a red corridor leads through it It leads us out of what was once upon a time We follow the path of Charu Majumdar] x2
Whether Dandakaranya or Baselland, resistance means class struggle When the masses win in the whole country, everywhere in the world, one will hear „lal salaam!“ From north-western Switzerland to Bihar-Jharkand Breaking through your chains, that’s anti-fascist When the masses win in the whole country, everywhere in the world, one will hear „lal salaam!“
Workers, peasants „lal salaam!“, peoples of the world „lal salaam!“ Masses and comrades „lal salaam!“, and also students „lal salaam!“ Revolutionaries „lal salaam!“, true democrats „lal salaam!“ True patriots „lal salaam!“ millions upon millions „lal salaam!“
Rest in Power Comrade Haribhushan, victory belongs to your Party and the Indian People!
7 Children
of poor people, that the Swiss State stole for cheap slave labour until
they turned 18. This practice lasted into the 1970‘s, and similar
practices until the 1980‘s.