Letters from Young Comrades in El Salvador, South Africa

We Will Destroy Prison Labor and Wage Slavery here ♦ Young Comrade Learns Through Practice here ♦

We Will Destroy Prison Labor and Wage Slavery

Comrades of Red Flag, I send you a militant greeting!

I am writing this letter to share with all of you the conditions in which we have to work in the factory where I am. I am assigned to the packing sector. The exploiting bosses have placed us in this space made of cyclone mesh. It’s a metal fence with iron doors. Most of us feel locked in. Really, it’s as if we were in a prison. In fact, we are.

It’s a small prison within the enormous prison that is capitalism. But with organized communist struggle we will break it down.

To enter, we need a card, and only one group of us workers, men and women, have access. They have forbidden earrings, rings, bracelets, necklaces, scissors, and wire cutters. They don’t want anything metal to enter this sector. And now, without this card, we cannot enter this area to do our work.

We feel oppressed as workers at this moment. The bosses say that it is for the wellbeing of the factory because a new client has asked for this remodeling.

But we know that they have really done it because they believe that we workers are going to steal. On the contrary, they are stealing our labor power from us, which is the profit they put in their pockets every day!

We feel imprisoned at our job because we do not even have the freedom to use our tools, such as scissors and the watch that is indispensable to see the time, to know what time it is, or how many minutes are left before we can leave at break time, lunch time, or departure time.

As part of the working class, as a maquila worker, I feel outraged by what they are doing. It is not right that just for a few coins our life changes and we are imprisoned for days on end. By continuing to work we neglect our family, we neglect our children just to go to work as prisoners in that place.

Communism will put an end to wage slavery! In Communism we will produce for need and not for profit.

—Young Worker in Struggle for Communism, El Salvador

Young Comrade Learns Through Practice

Hello, comrades!

I’m a high school student. I joined the party after May Day. I’m the youngest in our group. Even though this is the case, comrades have always treated me with respect. They value my input even in important decisions. They always want to hear what I think.

I must say, this is new to me, and I like it because it gives me confidence to want to contribute more. After our last international meeting we decided we want to bring 30 people in the next one, triple our number on the trip.

Recently I’ve invited two of my friends from school for our collective meeting, because comrade M always says that practice is primary. To conclude, comrades, I just want to say that in the brief period I’ve been with this group, I’ve learned a lot, and I want to continue to learn.

I know that bringing two people is not enough. I need to do more, and I promise to do more because I want to help my comrades to reach our goals. I have started distributing Red Flag.

Comrade in South Africa

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