GARMENT WORKERS: EL SALVADOR

“We need to keep doing more work in the factories.” “I think that we need to distribute more Red Flags in this and other factories.” “As they do in those countries [like Bangladesh], they exploit us here every day.” Workers made these statements in a meeting with a group of garment workers from factories in El Salvador. They also stated that “solidarity among workers worldwide with those workers who died and with their families is only the beginning. We have to recruit more workers in memory of the fallen.” Capitalism doesn’t care about your life. It cares about profit. Is there anything more important to bosses than generating profits at the cost of millions of workers’ lives in the world? Clearly not. On April 24, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, workers refused to go into the factory because of dangerous conditions in the building. But the hunger that makes us workers sell our labor power forced these workers to go to work the next day when ordered to do so. In a few minutes, the building collapsed, killing 1,127 workers. These deaths add to the capitalist system’s continually growing list of victims. Without realizing it, we die slowly in the factories, schools, hospitals, and barracks. Exploitation of the working class must end. The only way the world can fundamentally change is with communist revolution. Exploitation of workers in Dhaka, Bangladesh shows the murderous nature of this rotten capitalist system. In Bangladesh, 3.5 million people work in sweatshops for a wage of $35.89 per month, $1.38 per day. Workers sell their labor power in deadly conditions. Is the solution a wage increase? Better working conditions? NO. For this to end, we have to build a communist society in which we will work in safe conditions for the production of what we need, not for profits. The lackeys of capitalism try to “fix” conditions like in Dhaka by writing laws to control working conditions and building construction. But bosses don’t follow laws; if safety measures are implemented, they go to other places where they continue killing workers. This is not the first time a labor catastrophe has occurred in Bangladesh. In 2012, 112 textile workers were killed in a factory fire. The building in Dhaka didn’t have even the most minimal safety conditions, but this isn’t important when it’s about making more money. So they kept telling people to work until the building collapsed. This doesn’t happen only in Bangladesh. In China, 27 workers recently died in a coal mine explosion. Mango, an English design, J.C. Penney, Benetton, and Primark are brands that exploited the workers in the Dhaka factory. The profits from these brands together are incalculable. Primark, part of British Associated Foods, generates 8.235 million pounds sterling a year. You don’t need to be a big economist to see how bosses get rich at the cost of millions of workers’ lives worldwide. The decision to win is in our hands; to win and put an end to capitalism. In our hands is the future, our communist future. When we distribute more Red Flags at school, in the factory, in the barracks, in the university or wherever we are, we are advancing toward this future and defeating this genocidal system. The blood of these workers will not be spilt in vain. They are victims of capitalism and the day will come when the bosses will

MTA: LOS ANGELES

“What’s happening comrade? Have you read Red Flag yet?” “Yes,” W. answered.
“And what did you think?” I asked him again.
“This article about Bangladesh made me really mad. And that’s what I’m telling you comrade. The system is going down. The attacks are getting sharper. But many here don’t want to believe it.”
“It’s not that they don’t believe it, comrade. They know it, they feel it. They understand that the crisis is getting sharper, but there are still illusions that maybe there is still time to continue living as in the past. That’s why our task is to ensure that when the workers decide to fight, they know that ICWP and Red Flag is the leadership to follow and that a communist society is the solution to all these problems.”
“So let’s get to it; it’s a piece of cake, comrade.”
This is part of a conversation between two comrades of ICWP in a mechanic shop of MTA. During this same week, we had passed out a leaflet about a driver who, overwhelmed by the economic situation, as a result of being arbitrarily fired by the MTA management, took the unfortunate and sad decision to end his life.
Little by little the discussion widened. And the comparisons between the tragedy in Bangladesh and the suicide of the MTA driver were made, linking them with one single culprit, capitalism. There were reactions of disbelief, anger, solidarity, etc.
So we asked the other workers if on the day we have a farewell party for D and G, we could discuss a little more about this for those who were not present at this time.
The day of the meeting, between speeches and jokes for the coworkers who were moving to other departments, we also made a presentation about the previously mentioned tragedies. And the meeting became a political forum.
An Asian worker said that it was inconceivable that these tragedies still happen with so many scientific breakthroughs. Another worker answered that science costs money and that we poor workers can’t buy it.
The discussion was broad, emotional, and the suggestion emerged to collect clothes, shoes, and other items to send to our comrades in need, and that we would also collect the money to send them. Also, that Red Flag should carry a message of solidarity to the family of the MTA driver and to the workers of Bangladesh. The meeting ended because we had to go back to work. We left with a very high sense of international solidarity and in fact with a very solid step in the communist development of the MTA mechanics.

GARMENT WORKERS: LOS ANGELES

“Avenge our brothers from Bangladesh,” is the title of a leaflet that was distributed among garment workers where I work. “Where is Bangladesh?” asked a worker who read the ICWP leaflet.
Another worker answered, “I believe that its in India.”
“But that’s real far from here,” answered the same worker who asked the question, and then he said, “And besides, what do we have to do with all of that.”
“But, wait a minute, what? WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH US?” answered another worker, as he listened to the conversation. And, very upset, he continued, “They are workers just like us and what happens to them affects us.”
Within the “modern” buildings and sweatshops of Los Angeles that have the building codes of a powerful country, thousands of us workers are exploited, receiving miserable wages, the modern form of wage slavery.
The U.S. bosses, just like the bosses in Bangladesh, use various forms of enslaving us to those sewing machines, creating a huge competition amongst us, and other workers of the world. The bosses divide us by race and countries. They created their borders so that we wouldn’t be concerned about what happens to other workers. They blind us from seeing that all of the world’s workers are our class brothers and sisters.
In this factory, the bosses separate the better-paid work for those who put up with all of their orders and wage conditions. When a worker cannot go to work, for whatever reason, whether there is a health problem
or a family emergency, the bosses modern way of punishing us is to give us the worst work and often times blame us for not delivering the product on time.
These bosses say to us that they are our “friends” and that they are worried about our personal development and that we are a “family,” a team. But we work long hours, 12 to 14 hours daily from 6 to 7 days a week so that we may be able to get the minimum wage.
And how is it that this is not our problem, when for similar reasons of exploitation, a Texas fertilizer plant kills workers. The buildings in Bangladesh, Texas and China are all similar traps for the working class.
To liberate ourselves from this exploitation and build a world where bosses, exploitation and borders do not exist, we need to organize ourselves in the factories, in the countryside, in the schools and in every corner of the world. Red Flag, our communist newspaper, is the flag of the world’s workers. On a not too distant day we will avenge the deaths of millions of our brothers and sisters.