India here ♦ El Salvador here ♦
“Garment Workers From L. A. to Bangladesh, Destroy Wage Slavery”
Floods Can’t Drown Out International Communist Garment Worker Solidarity
BENGALURU (India), September 11 —Almost 13 million people in this “Silicon Valley of India” faced rising waters that flooded every street after two weeks of rain. Capitalism’s greed for profit caused this devastation.
As the city’s population surged, real estate capitalists built unsustainable industrial structures, displaced workers to low-lying areas, and built multimillion dollar homes in front of lakes. A small variation in the monsoon pattern was enough to flood the city and cause misery to the masses.
Comrades of the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP) in Bengaluru were under three feet of mud. While struggling without water, electricity, internet, and food, some managed to talk to a garment worker comrade in Sri Lanka’s Free Trade Zone (FTZ) near Colombo. ICWP had sent a contribution to the garment workers there.
This comrade leader, Geetha, has been receiving copies of Red Flag regularly. She told us that when she first read it after the collapse of the Sri Lanka government, she was excited about the fall of the unpopular president. She added that Red Flag was the only newspaper that talked about how only communism can resolve century-old problems that are piling up on the workers.
But she was scared and felt alone. She seemed to be the only person to defend communism in a country of millions. Management had attacked her in the past for taking part in a strike demanding employer contributions to Employees Provident Funds and Employees Trust Fund. Her union settled for a reduced contribution in return for her to continue to work.
She was also attacked when she was with other women in actions started by her union against the military occupation in the FTZ. She said, “If I talk about communism, the union is going to attack and isolate me. They can fire me without a notice and the bosses will readily agree.”
Amidst this struggle, ICWP comrades in Chennai continued to support her vision of communism. They put her in touch with garment workers in Bengaluru. A Chennai comrade assured her that she was not alone. Our party includes garment workers in El Salvador, Los Angeles, and Bengaluru.
No other party organizes workers across nations. We don’t believe in countries; we believe in workers’ struggle against the capitalist class. In communism there will be no countries.
This constant communication with the Chennai comrade created trust and hope in comrade Geetha. Very soon after the comrade asked her to join the party, she was able to talk with garment worker comrades in Bengaluru. She described this as eye-opening. She felt that their experience was no different than hers. She did not know where El Salvador was, but she imagined that the workers there also faced exploitation.
As her confidence grew, she started giving a few copies of Red Flag to the workers she knew. She no longer felt alone or isolated. She started looking at the workers who we can win to communism. That realization was no longer just the garment workers but workers everywhere, in all countries.
Now the struggle with comrade Geetha is to join ICWP and find comrades in her factory who can form a collective to expand the party.
Many Red Flag readers have told us that “Labour tribunals are a complete waste for the workers. When we face disciplinary action, the bosses don’t send their representatives, but we must go to court every single time. We don’t get paid, and the court date gets postponed. Eventually, the worker withdraws her case.”
“Since Covid,” one reported, “the bosses make very quick decisions because there is a shortage of raw materials. Suddenly, they have too much work but just two weeks ago, there was no work. This instability causes permanent unemployment. And those who work must do two shifts for the same salary.”
Complaints like these are fertile grounds for comrade Geetha to explain that the capitalists have no solution but to create misery and surplus profit for their class. We must face these challenges and create more communists out of these struggles. It is not an easy task, but the only solution is to end capitalism and create a society based on our needs.
Forming a party collective in Sri Lanka will create numerous opportunities for developing more communist leaders all over the world.
Garment Workers: Communist Revolution Will Break the Chains of Wage Slavery
EL SALVADOR—On August 30, approximately 1,000 workers were fired from the factory APS El Salvador SA de CV located in the free trade zone of San Bartolo. Many had been working for many years, increasing the profits for the capitalist owners. The bourgeois bosses closed the factory and disappeared without an explanation or payment for the last weeks, stealing their salary. This clothing factory has been operating in El Salvador since 1993.
This coming October, Fruit of the Loom, an American factory, will also close one of its plants, leaving another 800 workers unemployed. Aggravating the situation of the working class. This is the second-largest employer in the country, with 9,500 workers. It will also close two plants in Honduras.
The capitalist thieves say that this closure is due to the war between NATO and Russia in Ukraine, which has raised the costs of raw materials and the supply chain.
The exploiting bosses do not care about the situation of the workers. By stealing their wages, they leave the workers unable to support their families, who will go hungry and suffer many difficulties.
This crime cries out for communist revolution and the establishment of communism!
It cries out for an end to wage slavery and money, which is the chain that ties us to the capitalist-imperialist bosses!
It cries out for a production system where nothing is bought or sold, especially our labor power! A system where, without money, we collectively produce and distribute everything to satisfy our needs, not to fill the multi-trillion-dollar coffers of the capitalist-imperialists!
The capitalist crisis hits the workers here and all over the world. It has led the masses to mobilize in India, Sri Lanka, Honduras, and elsewhere. Imperialist wars intensify the conditions of misery for the workers.
Potential to Build New Communist Collectives with Laid-Off Workers
“Looking for better working conditions, I entered the APS maquila where they offered me a better work environment and better salaries,” a friend told us.
“That was an illusion because they were almost the same conditions as my previous job. I have a family to support, and I worked expecting bonuses, vacations and overtime, but now I have been fired instead.”
We met with him recently to talk more broadly about the situation that fired workers are experiencing. We gave him Red Flag, which he gladly received. We told him about our International Communist Workers’ Party and that we fight to abolish wage slavery internationally, organizing the working class to fight directly for Communism, a society without money, in which our labor power will not be sold. That we are a party open to the working class.
This worker has put us in contact with another worker who has also been fired. We met with her and her daughters, talked to her about ICWP and what we fight for, and gave her our Red Flag newspaper. We are creating communist ties with her and more workers, as the working class needs to be strongly organized to change this exploitative system. In Communism the workers will not go through this. They will work collectively and based on the needs of humanity, not for profit.
Our collective stands in solidarity with these comrades. Among the workers, we have collected and delivered a basic food basket, to help in these moments of crisis.
We will continue with this solidarity effort, with communist ideas and help with food, with our working-class family.
We are expanding the Red Flag network with these workers who, we hope, will enter other factories where communist ideas will spread to more workers, creating the conditions to form communist collectives in other factories.
Get organized in the International Communist Workers’ Party!