LOS ANGELES, CA—The day starts and we have to make plans about what to do with the little time we have left after work. Just think about the next work day. This is wage slavery. This is the life of a garment worker tied to a machine. We workers have no hopes of changing the situation under capitalism.

No matter how much we make, we are still wage slaves. That's why we have to destroy the system of exploitation with a communist revolution. There are no islands—factories where they pay and treat us "well"—that save us from the disaster produced by a society that creates wars and false illusions for millions while a tiny few live as millionaires.

American Apparel uses the myth of paying "high wages" to super-exploit its workers. In 2013 its sales were $624 million, based on the work of 5000 workers. Each worker produced $126,000 that year, receiving in wages between $28,000 and $29,000, leaving the company a surplus value 4 times the wage received by the worker. That is, the workers received one fifth of the value that they produced.

Workers at American Apparel receiving Red Flag

This is the capitalist system, which only produces for the profits of the bosses who own  the means of production (factories, mines, land, machinery, and materials needed to produce commodities).

Utilizing the production model from American Apparel, the US bosses want the garment industry and other manufacturing industries to return to the US. They maintain that they can pay "high" wages, without losing out to the competition. "Made in the USA" means competition to the death with other companies.

In Los Angeles, there are more than 50,000 garment workers registered, not counting the thousands who work in unregistered shops in terrible conditions similar to millions of garment workers throughout the world. Even though the bosses can through use a few more crumbs than the $68 a month that garment workers in Bangladesh are paid, $95 a month in Cambodia or $300 in China, we workers have more in common with these workers than with our respective bosses.

The US imperialists are preparing for wider wars, including World War.

Neither control of quality nor rising costs of transportation are sufficient motives to return part of the manufacturing to the US.

The bosses' armies will need greater and greater quantities of uniforms, coats, backpacks, sleeping bags, etc, All of these are required for battle; and they have to guarantee that they are produced in the US. That's why in the next decade the bosses are planning to return 200,000 jobs in clothing manufacturing to the US.

Ralph Lauren invested $142 million to expand a factory in High Point, North Carolina. This year other companies have invested $1.8 billion in expanding existing factories and building new ones, the majority in the southern US where wages are lower due to racism against black workers.

In their thirst for profits and preparations for war, the bosses hire more workers, creating more opportunity for those who are exposed to communist ideas and take up the task of communist revolution. Currently in Los Angeles, an average of 1,000 garment workers take Red Flag every issue. This creates huge potential to develop dozens of communist leaders.

Workers need communism.

Capitalist wage slavery requires our super-exploitation. Only a communist society will abolish exploitation. No longer will a few decide what to produce and how to produce it. We workers will have control of the means of production and will decide what we need so that all continue to function in good mental and physical health and without the need to be closed inside a factory for many hours. In a communist society, we workers will do different activities during the day, all to benefit  our class, the international working class, instead of doing the same thing, slaving for a bosses' profits, day after day. Help organize ICWP!

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