Exploitation, Imperialism, Class Struggle here ♦ Letter: Communism Will End Wage Slavery here ♦
Mexico: Exploitation, Imperialism, and Class Struggle
MEXICO, November 12— We are witnessing a bitter war between the capitalist powers of the world: the United States, China, and Russia. Every corner of the world is an arena in which they are fighting this battle. The capitalist exploiters in Mexico and their governments (whether Right or Left) vie for markets, natural resources, and the surplus value extracted from the workers to maximize their profits, whether in a “legal” or a violent way.
The US capitalists in Mexico do this through legalistic tricks. They impose governments, with treaties such as NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), or violently through their cartels. Seizing wealth and sowing terror in the working class.
In addition to the army and the police, the drug cartels are the armed wing of these bosses. In many places in Mexico they have taken over the markets, charge fees to merchants, determine laws, impose rulers. At the same time, they have seized natural resources (e.g., mines, forests, water, food production). They have sold and smuggled drugs, and terrorized the working class (robberies, kidnappings, rapes, extortion, and murders).
On the other hand, this year Chinese employers are the largest investors in Mexico, after those of the US, without the need for trade agreements.
In a fierce struggle, they fight for markets for the sale of their goods. Chinese companies invest in infrastructure: the transport and extraction of goods and natural resources (e.g., ports, interoceanic corridor, “Mayan train,” mining). As well as in the manufacture, sale, and transfer of drugs, and in the workers’ labor.
However, in this bosses’ war, the loser is the working class. Since the workers are super-exploited, they are the ones who provide the dead. Young people are the victims of drug addiction, and peasants are dispossessed of their territories.
Faced with this fascist situation, the bosses and their rulers face two tasks: 1) To contain the advance of the competing bosses and 2) To contain the discontent of the workers.
The discontent of the working class is evident. Mass demonstrations of teachers, students, peasants, and workers are emerging. ICWP collectives have discussions with friends, family, and acquaintances about how the working class is being subjugated and how we can free ourselves forever. But it is not enough. We have to strengthen our efforts.
For us, the working class, this is an opportunity to show our class siblings that in capitalism, no matter which side wins, we’re the ones who lose. That a communist society based on meeting the needs of our class is the only solution.
We will only win this battle by joining collectives, understanding communist ideas through discussions, and distributing, writing for, and reading Red Flag. We will achieve this in an organized way through an international workers’ party that leads the revolution to bury forever the bosses of every side.
Capitalist terror will come to an end only when the communist revolution triumphs.
Letter: Workers Need Communism to End Wage Slavery
Greetings comrades.
I have read the letter that another worker wrote to Red Flag in a previous edition. They asked some questions about political economy.
Why don’t machines generate profits on their own?
Why do capitalists invest in unproductive capital?
A former coworker from the factory worked from 6 am to 6 pm and never organized for fear of being fired.
A few days ago, she was fired. From that you can see that the only thing that interests the bosses is our labor power. How much the worker yields is what matters.
On the other hand, it’s said that we need the bosses to survive. That’s true, for now. But they need us more because without us they would not generate profits. Machines alone do not produce. At least in these countries, they still depend a lot on the workers’ labor. Because in other countries, technology advances and many workers are replaced, although not entirely.
Businesspeople invest in land that they do not use and could be called unproductive. But they use it as collateral to obtain financing that they then invest to improve their businesses and continue exploiting more workers.
I’m asked, “How much do you make a day where you are working now?” I gladly answer, “$115 a fortnight, $100 for the boss and $15 for me.” That’s how they work all over the world. Now they fire me, but there are many like me out there who are hungry and who come to work to generate profits for the bosses in order to survive.
That’s why we need Communism: to end wage slavery, exploitation, and borders and to be able to work based on need.
That is why I fight and why I have been organized in the ICWP for several years. When the Communist revolution triumphs, we the working class will lead a system that is fair for us.
—Woman comrade worker in El Salvador