Workers Aren’t Fooled by Crumbs–They Are Expanding the Struggle to Abolish Wage Slavery
EL SALVADOR, November 9 — This weekend, there was a meeting with workers outside a maquila factory. Others who work in other departments of this factory were expected to participate. In the end, they couldn’t come because the boss made them work late.
At the meeting, a worker leader pointed out, “We want to comment on something that happened in these last few weeks in the factory. The boss needs to export more than one million garments monthly of an international brand that demands high quality, with a sped-up production pace. It is almost impossible to reach these goals that they have imposed on us.”
He continued, “All the modules could not reach the goal.” It is 100 dozen (1,200 units) a day for an extra daily payment of $0.69 to each worker for that production. The men and women workers purposely slowed down their pace of work. The bosses and their servants were very worried that they wouldn’t be able to meet their profit goals.
A new production manager spoke to J, a worker leader, and asked, “What’s going on? Why can’t they get the production out?”
“The pay for the daily goal is not enough,” J answered.
The next day the factory bosses decided to increase the payment to $1 per daily goal met.
This is a crumb. But the effects of such crumbs on the workers can make them believe that capitalism can be humanized or managed. This is not possible. The capitalist horror will not cease. The exploiting capitalists are not willing to lose their privileges.
In the meeting, the workers analyzed this. “The power of production is in the workers. We have to make the workers see that they are the only ones who have power. The bosses can have the machines, but without the workers, they are nothing.”
Wages Are the Chain that Binds Workers to Our Exploitation
Through the International Communist Workers’ Party and the distribution of Red Flag, we must raise the consciousness of the working class. They must see that with the establishment of communism, the working class will not be exploited for miserable profits. There will be no money. Things will be produced only to meet the needs of the masses worldwide.
Reforming the system will not overcome capitalism. In El Salvador we have had thirteen constitutions, and they have not changed the life of the workers. Nor has the parliamentary struggle or the trade union struggle changed the workers’ lives.
The experience that workers had under liberal governments like the last ones here, as well as others, shows that it is not enough to administer the capitalist system by making reforms. One example was the agrarian reform in the 1970s and 80s. It was enacted with the aim of stopping the left-wing movement at that time, but it was a failure. It failed to stop the class struggle, and it didn’t help the farmers. And in some cases, those lands went back to their former owners, the big landowners.
Communism is the only system that will liberate the working class from wage slavery because it will put an end to its material basis, money and capitalist ownership of means of production, through Communist revolution.
“It is clear to us that only organizing and fighting for communism will make it possible to end wage slavery. We are initiating political and organizational work with workers in other departments to win them to join ICWP,” said M, a comrade worker.
This is an important effort with the workers in another area because they are also key to the functioning of the factory. And key to the Communist struggle. We have already held several meetings with them. We read the leaflet that ICWP distributed during the strike of the industrial workers from the Boeing factory. It was inspiring for our class,” said J., referring to that meeting.
The real work is to organize the masses so that the workers aren’t fooled by the deception of reformism, and we continue being wage slaves.
“When a government grants a reform by decree, with another decree it takes it away,” E. said.
The illusion is that by accumulating reform victories, in the end there will be a major change. But these small reform victories will not put an end to exploitative, oppressive capitalism. We communists are not going for reforms. On the contrary, we will dig out and end the material conditions of capitalism at their root.
We’re fighting for a dignified life for the working class. Let’s fight for Communist Revolution and a classless society.