On this page: Workers discuss Political Economy here ♦, Organizing Workers for Communism here ♦
Workers Discuss Communist Political Economy and Mobilize for Communist Workers’ Power
EL SALVADOR—”The competition is between the capitalists. They have bought compressed air machines that can cut on their own, replacing the worker. An operation that used three people, now only uses one. The cutters used to cut the cloth with scissors; now machines do it,” said Comrade Maria. “I came to the factory as an operator fifteen years ago. We worked from 6 AM to 7 PM. Yes, thirteen hours a day! And I have seen all these bosses’ struggles to get more profits and exploit us workers more.”
In a recent leadership meeting, maquila workers and other members of the International Communist Workers’ Party read the article “Capitalism’s Competition for Profit Leads Inevitably to Depressions; Workers’ Only Solution: Communist Revolution” (Red Flag, v. 11 #11).
“The packing area used to have eight people. Now there are only four. They reduced the staff with machines. The other four were transferred to another area. If they don’t comply they are fired. The capitalists buy machines and replace the workers, to increase their profits,” Moisés pointed out. He began at the factory as a supervisor. He was sent to production for joining the workers’ struggle.
“We didn’t rush to reach the production goal the day of our meeting, even though we were going to lose two extra hours’ pay, because we care more about the struggle to organize ICWP.” continued Moisés. “They wanted us to speed up production, because, according to them, we weren’t doing it right. I confronted the supervisor and told him, ‘Then you come sit down here and tell me how it’s done.’ ”
“Is it clear how the bosses get their profit rate up by exploiting the workers?” asked a comrade.
Pedro has worked in the factory for over 20 years. He answered, “Yes. We know the bosses exploit us every day, and with our sweat they manage to buy more sophisticated machinery to fight against other bosses for better contracts. We have also talked about how a worker is hired for eight hours — although in reality they work up to ten— and that in only two hours the worker has already produced their wage. The rest of the value we generate is profit for the boss.”
The first time we told the workers inside the factory that we could live without money and bosses, it was a big struggle. Today many see it more clearly, after reading Red Flag for a while and attending our extended meetings.
We Party members had been left in groups that had no chance to earn $1 an hour extra over the minimum. Some people are afraid to join the ICWP because of that.
“During the pandemic they only called workers that the bosses knew were not organized with us. We Party members told the other workers that it is the bosses who need us the most. The bosses don’t produce anything,” explained a comrade worker.
Pedro concluded, “We read the article and realized that there is no way out of this crisis except to organize for ICWP. We have seen how people, for example in the US, take to the streets to protest against racist killings, despite the rulers’ campaign of social distancing.
“We have decided to form cells with the workers when they go out for lunch for collective discussions. We will return to having study groups and bring workers from other maquila areas. In the factory we already have a new Red Flag reader. In another factory there are two new readers.”
The struggle continues.
Organizing Factory Workers for Communism
EL SALVADOR— The International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP) was founded with the purpose of mobilizing the masses for communism. We are organizing on this principle in the industrial areas, where there is the greatest concentration of workers.
Some members of the communist collective in the factory started out in the union structures. Some comrades gave us Red Flag. It was then that we began to learn about another way to fight, why we should organize ourselves directly for communism.
We undertook this task. We have grown modestly, but our collective in the factory is strong. We are spreading the idea that only communism can end the voracious exploitation to which the working class is subjected.
It has not been and will not be an easy road, but we are advancing. Today, in the pandemic crisis, many of the usual ways of protesting are restricted. For a long time, we had no personal contact with the workers. This made us look for other ways to communicate and reflect on what is needed to continue making our party grow.
We are not silent or passive. We continue in solidarity. We continue to put communism in the minds of the workers through calls and distributing Red Flag electronically. Now we are again able to pass it out in print. Our comrades received it well. Some said, “We really missed reading Red Flag!”
The bosses are using social distancing to try to prevent us from communicating. However, our cell always finds a way to overcome these limitations. We meet briefly at the factory exit. We talk on the buses. These are challenges that we have to overcome collectively,
We have planned how to continue organizing more workers into the ranks of ICWP. We discussed some obstacles:
—The difficulty of holding extended meetings as we did before the pandemic.
— Red Flag reaching other industrial areas. How we are using the newspaper.
– -Little time to talk with the workers, since the members of the modules have also changed, as have the schedules of leaving work
To deal with these difficulties, our objectives are the following:
—Reorganize the cells so that each comrade in the main cell can meet.
—Focus on making contacts with workers in other factories; distribute Red Flag.
Primarily, how do we use Red Flag, a valuable organizational tool, source of knowledge and connection with comrades around the world?
It is vital that every ICWP member read Red Flag with interest and commitment, to be able to distribute and discuss it. Our goal is to encourage this. Therefore, we have decided to read it collectively in small already-organized groups.
—Prepare and distribute leaflets that will also be weapons in the fight against capitalism.
—Resume the study groups with fewer members, for health and safety reasons.
Long live Communism!
—Leading comrades in the maquilas
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