The company I work for is located in the northern part of the State of Mexico, one of the poorest areas of the state. The company pays $600 MXN a week to women and $650 MXN to men (one U.S. dollar is equivalent to 12.78 Mexican pesos); these are starvation wages, miserable and also humiliating. This company is one of many that exploit workers, taking advantage of conditions in the area, because this is one of the most deprived regions. The majority here doesn’t own the lots where they reside, living precariously in brick and mud houses covered by cardboard or aluminum roofs, and out of necessity are forced to accept dangerous jobs for very low wages. Most never even finished elementary school.
The majority of workers in this company are women and many are under age; there are only three men in the production line. Women do all the heavy work, risking injuries, without safety equipment or social security benefits. Because of the scarcity of jobs, compounded by the low educational level in which this accursed system has kept them, many women have to tolerate abusive bosses who humiliate them, scream obscenities at them and try to destroy their dignity and make them feel like trash.
When I realized a young woman was crying because our boss had insulted her for something insignificant, I loudly challenged the boss, denouncing him in front of our co-workers, telling him he couldn’t talk like that to a person, a woman, and even more so, to a young person; I was so angry that I struck him.
When the contractor learned of this situation, he demanded to know why I had struck the boss, saying that he couldn’t tolerate that type of violence in his company, even though the bosses’ violence is much more serious, because humiliating and degrading words can cause injuries that often never heal.
In the end, I was fired, and the supervisor threatened me with court charges. But what’s good about this situation is that it allowed me to discuss the Party’s politics with some of my co-workers, who are now receiving CHALLENGE. We workers have the possibility of freedom in our hands; we must fight for dignity, eliminating racism, individualism and sexism that destroy us while the capitalists enjoy the wealth that we produce. We must fight for our children to save them from this suffering, for the dignity of our lives, for our freedom, for a communist revolution. Workers of the world unite!
Communist Fighter