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Strikes Continue in Peru

Against Wage-Labour

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:55:00

Miners began another strike at Shougang Hierro Peru on Monday July 13th, 2008.

This is a continuation of a previous general strike across the country a week before. The workers have outstanding demands that have not been met, the main one being wages.

Shougang Hierro Peru earned more than PEN113 million (approximately US$40 million) gross profit in the first three months of 2008. This is an enormous contradiction where the massive wealth is being generated by the workers not for themselves, rather for the shareholders and management of the company. Tiny trickles of the produced revenues are paid to the workers in their meager wages. The workers are stopping production to make their demands loud and clear. The work stoppage must hurt the system where it counts, that is, in the profits generated through the production of the mine. The reliance of the workers on their wages forces them to fight a battle with capital because wage-labour is the basis for the capitalist system. The fight must become anti-capitalist with a long-term vision to end wage-slavery.

Additionally, another contradiction that must be addressed is that Peru has one of the fastest growing economies in the world with economic growth pegged at 9% while its poverty rate is 40%. The economic growth of 9% means that the gross domestic product of Peru has increased by this percentage which translates into increasing enormous revenues for the corporations and the state. One must question the nature of the system which exploits workers daily to generate capital at sickeningly high levels while the workers cannot afford to purchase food, but it is important to note however even if the workers could afford food, this is not the point. The dependence on the wages forces workers into compromising their lives to produce for the capitalists with the constant push by capital to lower wages. The workers wages have not increased at the rate of the profits of the company or at the rate of the overall economy. Workers must take control of production for their own livelihood. Stopping production is the workers’ way of forcing change from management and having their demands met. This is the first step being taken around the globe by millions of workers struggling for a better life and so this coupled with an international worker’s movement can truly make a huge dent in the capitalist mode of production.

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