CHENNAI (India), August 1 — “Several hundred women perished during the third covid wave in July 2021,” said Geetha. “The bosses said they were dirty because they were spreading the pandemic. They wanted many of the sick women to produce more for the customers of Victoria’s Secret, Marks & Spencer, Hugo Boss, and H&M.” Geetha (not her real name) is a garment worker in the Free Trade Zone (FTZ) of Sri Lanka.
Seven workers attended our collective meeting of auto workers in Chennai. This was very difficult because everything is disrupted by an unrelenting monsoon flood. However, one comrade with a relative in Sri Lanka was very excited to report about Geetha. We have been circulating Red Flag in our neighborhoods. It was through this mass distribution we met Geetha and others in Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lanka crisis is creating possibilities for massive upheaval all around the world, especially in India and neighboring countries. We must build our party as fast as possible.
Just three years ago, the now ex-President of Sri Lanka Rajapaksa had won a massive electoral victory. He was credited with suppressing the civil war in Sri Lanka. His fascist army was invincible, having crushed Muslims and other minorities. He wanted to make Sri Lanka another Singapore. International tourists were flocking to Sri Lanka’s serene beaches.
Sri Lanka’s wealth was built mostly by 200,000 women garment workers (1% of the total population) who contributed 52% of the country’s export income. Other significant exports came from the spice, fishing, and tourism industries. These sectors have many women workers.
Our comrades recognize that we need the most oppressed women workers in the leadership of the party. Geetha is looking for a solution that will free her from the wage slavery that brings her daily sexual harassment, horrible living conditions, and no escape from the sweatshops. Communist revolution is the only solution that will break our oppressors’ ability to make a profit from their labor.
Every way Geetha has tried to make her life better has ended up worse. Amidst the covid crisis, there was a big demand in the apparel industry. She saw her fellow workers drop dead while the bosses demanded that she work at a breathless speed to fulfill the supply chain as far away as Europe.
Their exports rose 180% while Geetha made 800 LKR (US$4.50) a day. Then in July 2022 the local currency collapsed. She will be making 1000 LKR a day, but it will only be worth US$2.60. When the IMF, the Chinese, and Indian bosses demand more from the workers, they will make less than a dollar a day.
Geetha said that the bosses are demanding to get ‘back on track’ to restart the work that was crippled by weeks of upheaval. That means the work formerly done by twenty workers is done by five women or fewer. If they can’t finish it, the next day they don’t come back. Often the bosses’ managers wave a termination notice the day workers start to intimidate them into finishing their unbearable quota.
Geetha has approached Free Trade Zone Workers & General Services Employees Union. She said that she has met some wonderful women, but the leadership always wants to compromise with the bosses.
Geetha said that what she read in Red Flag about the Sri Lanka crisis opened her eyes to a very new reality. She understood that the same system oppresses workers everywhere. She said the military has occupied Free Trade Zones. “The union demands that the army withdraw,” she said. “Now I think, why not organize them? We need them and their weapons.”
We asked Geetha to join ICWP and organize other workers. She replied that she hardly gets enough sleep to stay awake. Living in these conditions is extremely hard. We understand and we should be more thoughtful about what she is expressing. We are workers too, but we have not experienced the same brutality as Geetha.
It is our collective responsibility as an international party to come up with a solution. We need people like Geetha, thousands and millions of them. And we need them now.
We will continue our struggle in Chennai with more urgency. Geetha has agreed to take more Red Flags. We are trying to help our Sri Lanka comrades, including visiting her. Winning Geetha and others like her to our party can lead to masses joining our march to the communist revolution.
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