UNITED STATES
LOS ANGELES—On January 16th, the garment factory American Apparel closed its doors, leaving more than 2400 workers out of work. American Apparel is one more factory that has fallen in a capitalist world full of overproduction. Bankruptcy came after years of all-out competition against other brands and bosses.
American Apparel, like all bosses, amassed huge profits for years. Now that this factory is not profitable, they grab their suitcases with their $ millions and they leave. Thus they leave thousands on the streets, without caring about their lives or those of their families.
Many of these men and women workers are very angry and looking for ways to sue the American Apparel company for back wages, bonuses, and injuries suffered during their years of working in the factory. The illusion that the bosses’ courts will favor the workers leads many to put this fight into the hands of the lawyers and the courts. And even if they won these suits, we men and women workers will continue being wage slaves. On the other hand, the struggle for communism gives them the opportunity to take the future into their own hands.
Most of these workers, mainly immigrants from Latin America and some from Asia, like thousands more who work in the garment industry, are potential leaders of the working class. Steeled by difficult conditions of life, they had to travel thousands of miles, without money or documents, from their places of origin to the big cities of the US. After crossing deserts under intense heat and the cold in the mountains, they have arrived to work for miserable wages in garment factories. This process is not a sign of a weak class. On the contrary, it is a sign of a sector of workers that is full of strength.
Many of these workers came with experiences in fighting fascist capitalism. They organized in the factories, schools and in the fields. These men and women workers are not weak and helpless, as the bosses want to make them appear. Within them lies the potential to lead the masses to fight for a world without borders, without money, without exploitation.
The doors of ICWP are open to all men and women workers to fight for a communist society and to take the future in their hands. Now, many of these workers will go to other factories and shops, and they can take with them theiranger about this experience, not just against American Apparel, but against the whole capitalist system. This is the same system that forces us to leave our homes to live a life of constant struggle with no way out under capitalism.
Hundreds of them, like thousands more in the whole garment industry in Los Angeles, have read Red Flag and its struggle for a communist world for years. They must take as their own the goal of a world where all workers, free of the chains of wage slavery, can share according to our needs what we ourselves produce.
EL SALVADOR
“You all want to make more money and work less!” yelled a factory supervisor. A worker answered her, “You have always made your money without doing anything!” These kinds of discussions have been happening in the factories due to the increase in the minimum wage from $0.87 to $1.23 an hour worked.
The fmln and the unions bill this increase as a great advance, but the reality is that they are only negotiating the value of the workers’ labor power. This increase continues to maintain wage slavery. It is not intended to end the buying and selling of workers’ labor power. The working class needs to abolish such a valuation of our labor power so that it is only used to meet human needs and not ever again to be bought and sold.
In response to these situations about the minimum wage, wage slavery and the need to fight for a world without money, we decided to go to the area where the textile factories (maquillas) are located in the capital. There we distributed 300 communist leaflets and 100 copies of Red Flag.
“Ah, it’s Red Flag,” exclaimed two workers as they received our leaflet and newspaper.
“The bosses know that the party exists and that we are the only ones who denounce their system and propose communism,” said a woman worker leader.
We want to show that there is no “fair wage.” Even if the wage was doubled, we would continue to be chained to this system. We don’t want a longer chain, but to get rid of all the chains. Each worker needs to understand this concept and join the Party to build a communist society.
Our message is clear: Only a communist society will eliminate money and exploitation. Living in a communist society means to organize industrial production and work in the communities based on the needs of their members. For this goal the ICWP clubs here and internationally are carrying out political activities and organizing more workers to build a strong communist workers’ movement.
Our presence was also a show of support for the workers and denunciation against the bosses’ outrages such as firings, abolishing over -time, and psychological attacks that all the workers from this industrial complex suffer everyday.
The bosses’ threats that they will leave the country because of the increase in the minimum wage are part of their strategy to divide and intimidate the working class. However, it is here in El Salvador where the minimum wage, even with the increase, continues to be the lowest in Central America.
We left the factory area satisfied because we distributed the material and we witnessed first hand the interest by other workers who, despite not being ICWP members, recognize us and have confidence in our message. They know that outside and inside the factory there is a workers’ movement fighting to organize the working class, in the daily struggle against the bosses and their servants for a communist world.
This year begins with more workers, Red Flag distributors, and more students reading our newspaper Red Flag on the sidewalks, on the buses, on the way to the market, and planning the Communist May Day.
