Honduras, 2019: Gildan workers on strike say “We Don’t Want the Bosses’ Union”
Sri Lankan Garment Worker “Looking for Communism” Finds ICWP
BENGALURU (India), August 8— Comrades in the garment factories here read the story in Red Flag of Geetha, who works in the garment industry of a Free Trade Zone in Sri Lanka. They decided to reach out to her.
“I came five years ago from a small village to look for work in Bengaluru,” said Asha. “I was 15 years old. My parents worked as seasonal farm workers. I had to support them and three young brothers. I can see Geetha as if she is in front of me.
“It took me four years to find out that without communism we will live in perpetual poverty, Asha continued. “Now Geetha is looking for communism. We must do everything to help her.”
Asha and Geetha’s story of struggle is key to building more communists of ICWP. Our collective in Bengaluru distributes Red Flag in our neighborhoods and factories. Geetha’s story was very powerful in reaching out to more people. There are thousands and millions of workers like her. They all dream of a day when they will not be wage slaves of the bosses. The bosses survive and thrive by creating more misery for our working-class.
Our collectives in Bengaluru and Chennai are communicating more frequently and struggling to meet our needs in Sri Lanka. We have formed a group of comrades in both areas to be in touch with Geetha and other comrades in Sri Lanka. This way, we can minimize the problems of different languages. We are seeking ways to translate Red Flag into Sinhala.
Comrade Geetha was elated when she heard from our comrade in Bengaluru. She said that she would continue to circulate Red Flag. In a future article, she will tell us about her conversations with other workers.
The struggle with Geetha and the collectives in India has focused on the crisis in Sri Lanka and its possible revolutionary impact on the region. Faced with rebellious masses in Sri Lanka, the capitalists have temporarily accepted some severe measures to alleviate the hardships the masses face. They have eased the fuel restrictions, and food supplies are more consistent. However, this is how the rulers prepare to counterattack the working class when the mass movement retreats in the face of temporary reforms.
The new rulers of Sri Lanka face mounting debt and they are expecting workers like comrade Geetha to pay for it. This shows that no reform will solve our problems.
Twenty of the richest capitalists in Sri Lanka control everything from mass media to commerce and the banking system They are positioned to negotiate with IMF to bail out Sri Lanka. Dhammika Perera, the richest man in Sri Lanka, is working on a shadow government to revitalize capitalism. These local capitalists are trying to get maximum advantage of the strategic location of Sri Lanka to make deals with the US, the European Union, China, Russia, and India.
The rulers are amassing more troops in Free Trade Zones because they know that the hugely profitable garment industry will face massive rebellion. Our task is to recruit more comrade workers like Geetha, as well as the soldiers, to join in the fight for communism. Her joining our party is an important step toward building a mass International Communist Workers’ Party.
Communist Solidarity with Workers’ Struggles in Honduras
A communist greeting from El Salvador to the thousands of workers of the Gildan maquila in Rio Nance, Cortés, Honduras who are carrying out a work stoppage to protest low wages.
They demonstrated against the company union, against obligatory increases in production loads, and against the company’s threat to close due to the textile workers’ demands. They are calling for the formation of a union that would represent them, since the existing one is organized by the employers.
We believe that this is a great opportunity for the party and each one of us to see the reality that our class suffers day by day worldwide. Clearly, in this capitalist system the workforce is not valued as every worker deserves.
That is why it is more than necessary to organize ourselves to defeat the capitalist monster and no longer work only to generate profits, as today, but work based on our needs. We want to tell workers in Honduras that they are not alone. We are with them, and it would be a great political advance to be able to bring them Red Flag.
A worker in Honduras receives a monthly salary of 8,000 Lempiras (US $326 or 5550 Rand or 26000 INR), equivalent to the minimum wage in the maquilas in El Salvador. Nowhere is this enough to cover the needs of a family.
This exploitation and repression that our comrades suffer in Honduras are the same as in El Salvador, India, South America, South Africa and in any business in the world. They reflect the capitalist crisis.
Faced with this, the working class is mobilizing throughout the world against the capitalist system.
It is urgent to spread communist ideas with more energy. It is not a union that can free workers from the capitalist yoke, but the organized struggle for communism under the line of the International Communist Workers’ Party.
Comrades, these demonstrations that are taking place in various regions of the world are an opportunity to win the masses to the fight for communism.
We need to share communist ideas with the coworker next to us, with the friend, the neighbor, and our family, to form more communist cells.
Let’s cross the borders and share Red Flag with these workers. Let them feel the communist solidarity and that they are not alone.
We form a single class, the working class. Together we will fight for a classless society through communist revolution.
Long live the working class in resistance!
—Comrade in the maquilas of El Salvador