The Bosses Are the Real Thieves
I am indignant. Today I have personally experienced what we workers have constantly denounced in Red Flag.
I was unjustly accused of having stolen some garments from the factory where I have worked for years. In that moment I remembered the flyer that some time ago ICWP (International Communist Workers’ Party) handed out in the factory, “WHO IS STEALING FROM WHOM!” For years the bosses of this factory have stolen my labor power, since with each hour of work by the men and women workers, the bosses pocket thousands of dollars in profit.
The servile chief of human resources and the bosses hire agents dressed in civilian clothes to watch over us every day. When I left work they followed me for a long time. I boarded a bus and from there a soldier and a police officer took me off. They asked me for my identity card and I presented it. They directed me to a car with dark windows. Inside were four men. They told me that I already knew why I was there. I answered, “I really don’t know.”
I was very angry, because I didn’t know what I was facing.
At that moment they interrogated me and offered me money to tell them if there were co-workers stealing clothes.
“I’ve never seen anyone take clothes,” I said. Then they proceeded to arrest me. They treated me like a criminal and presented me in the bourgeois press as a thief. The thieves are the bosses!!
They kept me locked up for several days and I suffered a lot of mistreatment in prison. This experience has made me stronger, to continue fighting and organizing for the party. Today I am free and I am grateful for the solidarity of my family and my other international family, which is the people of the ICWP.
For the last meeting of the ICWP, I went and brought four more people. I will continue to make known to everyone that I can about “WHO STEALS FROM WHOM!”
—Comrade in the maquilas in El Salvador
Maquila Worker: It’s Time to Take a Stand
Cordial greetings, comrades of the ICWP
I’m a worker from a free trade zone in San Salvador.
Because of the position I hold in the factory I had always remained neutral, or rather a little pro-boss, but my experience has changed me and I believe it’s necessary to take a position.
The reason I am writing this letter is to tell you about the abuse by my co-workers on the board of the union of which I am a member. At one point they asked me to hand over a list of co-workers to be fired. I opposed this, and from there the harassment by them and the bosses began.
As I was part of the board of this union, they could not fire me because I had union rights. So they looked for a way to hurt me. They went to my daughter who also worked there and fired her without any justification, as usually happens with all the men and women workers.
Although I am in a position of leadership, I felt cornered. I approached a comrade in the ICWP to ask for advice. And indeed he gave me good guidance about how to handle the situation in legal terms. But he also suggested that I read Red Flag, and that I should join the fight for communism, to get rid of the bosses and this unjust system that keeps us exploited and divided.
I attended my first meeting as a Red Flag reader. I was very happy to meet more workers who are thinking, not about changing the boss through elections, but about changing the capitalist system for the working class system: communism.
I hope that like me they can be strong and always united so that we can have workplaces free of corrupt unions and bosses. Thank you for allowing me to write my story. We shouldn’t be afraid to express ourselves.
—Comrade worker
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