EL SALVADOR, October 17 — “Does the ICWP (International Communist Workers’ Party) have members in Ecuador?” a co-worker at the factory asked me. “Things are happening there that are very violent. There’s a lot of blood.”
As a worker I want to share this conversation with all of us who read our newspaper Red Flag.
My co-worker has been reading Red Flag for several years. She recently accompanied us for the first time to a Party meeting. She said that since I belong to the ICWP, maybe I could explain to her what was happening in this country to the south.
My comrades had already sent me the ICWP leaflet on the situation in Ecuador. I told her that we don’t have comrades there yet, but that we are fighting to organize more workers all over the world. I said that this would be a great opportunity— if we had members of our party there— since the masses of workers are open to communist ideas.
In the next few days we’ll give workers the leaflet so they have more information.
I also told her that the protests began because of the increase in fuel costs and other measures imposed by the International Monetary Fund, an organization that gives instructions to capitalist governments. I explained that the people didn’t just stand by. They took to the streets, first and foremost, the indigenous people. They fought a hard battle, including workers and students.
I saw that she was worried about all the repression suffered by the workers in Ecuador, because she told me, “These things shouldn’t happen.” Capitalism is not going to give up its power easily, but there are more of us who want a better world for workers and their families. I told her I was going to give her an example: there was a lot of workers’ blood spilled so that we workers have eight hours of work. If the exploiters could, they would not give us any free time for ourselves, because they only seek their profits by squeezing our labor power.
That’s why we need Communism. Then all this capitalist terror will come to an end. That’s why we need you and everyone in this factory. Together we’re going to advance the revolution for Communism organized by the International Communist Workers’ Party.
INDIA, October 17 — “My supervisor has been asking me for sexual favors for months. I refused. Now he verbally abuses me in front of coworkers,” said Rita, a 28-year-old garment worker in Bengaluru, India. She is among half a million garment workers, mostly women, who work in about 1200 units. They produce clothes for global brands like Zara, H&M, Prada, Chanel and Burberry.
Rita and co-workers, fed up with the humiliation, approached the union. The union said that this is the industry and if you want to work, you need to accept this reality.
Rita, now even angrier, went to a local office of a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that supports women who are sexually harassed. They were very sympathetic and took her case to court. After nine months, the court dismissed the case, claiming there was no ‘evidence’ of sexual harassment.
Rita’s story took an unusual turn. Amit, a young computer engineer, comes from the same village. He has been reading Red Flag for two years. Bengaluru is also the Silicon Valley of India. Every major US and European multinational has huge back offices in glitzy campuses far from the garment factories.
Amit heard about Rita’s story through the NGO. He visited Rita with Red Flag. He spoke with her and her family about how only communism can end the humiliating harassment that so many women in the garment industry face. Amit translated some old Red Flag articles written by garment workers in El Salvador.
The discussion began to make it clear that Rita and her co-workers cannot win this fight within the capitalist system. Sexism arose with private property and class society. Today it is rooted in the capitalist profit system. This system creates the conditions for humiliation and sexism to keep wages low, profits high and the working class divided.
Communism will get rid of bosses, profits, and the sexism that comes with them. All of us will work together as comrades and equals. Sexist humiliation – any sexism and any humiliation – won’t be tolerated.
Party comrades met with Rita, Amit and other garment workers invited by Rita. We read again about the garment workers in El Salvador. Rita said that the stories of the maquila workers were exactly what happen to her and others in India. The difference was that the workers in El Salvador were organizing for communist revolution by joining ICWP.
This meeting took place in three different languages. Everybody could see that, regardless of the distance, language and culture, there were more things in common between workers in India and El Salvador and everywhere. We are all wage slaves and the bosses make profit from us.
The bosses compete with each other, so they need to exploit us more. They make us work faster so they can have a bigger market share and defeat their rival capitalists. They control courts and unions. They create NGOs to make us believe in the system.
We asked everyone if they would like to join ICWP to organize for communism. Rita and Amit agreed to join. Rita said, “I have been looking for a permanent solution all my life. Now I see clearly that we need to destroy the system. I am joining ICWP and I will be a dedicated organizer.”
Amit expressed profound confidence in the working class. As a computer engineer, he makes a lot more money than garment workers. But he says he has more in common with the workers than the bosses who he works for.
“I considered myself a supporter of ICWP but now I am going to be an active organizer,” Amit said. “I work with others just like me. We can use our skills in computers and high tech to effectively organize and distribute our ideas.”
Three other garment workers decided to join too. Others are thinking about joining. We had another lively discussion about how Rita and her coworkers will organize to physically confront the sexist supervisor.
Rita and her family, in their extremely modest home, made food that we will never forget. We all helped cleaning. The spirit of communism was there for all to see.
We continued talking informally about how in communism there will be no fashion industry. We will make clothes to suit the environment, our work, our communist culture of sharing.
Without the capitalist bosses, women and men will develop communist relationships as we are already doing in the International Communist Workers’ Party. We will write more about this. As more join the party, our vision of the future communist society will become clearer.
Read our pamphlet:
THE COMMUNIST FIGHT AGAINST SEXISM
Available at icwpredflag.org/sxse.pdf
More articles about the fight against sexism are at
Front page of this issue