The youth are the majority of the population in Peru. In 1993, the thirty-one relatively big cities of the country had more than 50% of the population, and only Metropolitan Lima had about one-third of the total. This shows the migration patterns of the people from the economically impoverished countryside to the cities (especially to Lima) during the last fifty years, and the importance of the cities to the Peruvian revolution. Furthermore, by looking at the percentages of the economically active population we clearly see that youth are a principal part of the work force moving the national productive apparatus.Forced by the high cost of living, the youth find themselves compelled to enter the factories for a miserable wage that will barely enable them to cover their basic needs. They sell their labor power to survive, but this old system gives them no chance to better themselves.
A brief glance at the "Help Wanted" ads in the newspapers shows that factories and plants invariable want young workers age 18 to 22, who meet a number of requisites such as having a health certificate, nearby residence, good conduct, no criminal record and so on. But this is just superficial, since the employers see them not as human beings but as raw materials, flesh to be exploited, who, due to their vitality will raise productivity in their enterprises. Who, mainly due to inexperience and lack of jobs, likely will accept any humiliating working conditions.
THE YOUNG WORKER: A COMMODITY The young worker looking for a job is subjected to denigration and abuse by the chief of personnel of the prospective employer (more so if the worker is female), in what it is called the "personal interview." This interview consists of a detailed investigation of his life and will judge whether his aptitude for work meets the expectations, as if looking for a healthy beast. This procedure is just as the "hookmen" used to do centuries ago at the docks, to buy black slaves newly arrived from Africa.
Once all details have been checked, they must sign a work contract where it is stipulated that the job is only for a period of time, usually 90 days, after which time they will be fired, with no right to renew the contract or to any indemnity. In that same document they are assigned a minimum wage and a series of withholdings for "benefits" they will never get. It is noted that many plants require the worker sign an undated "letter of resignation" even before signing the contract or starting to work. This letter of resignation will be used by the company to discharge the worker when it suits the company at any time.
Various reasons are used by the personnel bosses (and at a higher level the chief of Industrial Relations) to fire any worker. The reason varies from what they deem "inefficiency" to what they label "insubordination," and finally as "terrorist."
THE ONES COMPLAINING ARE FIRED What they call "inefficiency" is the exhaustion all workers show at some point in time of their tiring work day. To identify this, the employers (whether the national bourgeoisie or the imperialist corporations), employ spies known as "observers" or "watchmen" positioned at strategic spots in the factory. They are nothing more than snitches eager to finger any worker so as to please the boss.
The "observers" are also used to detect the so-called "insubordination," which is the demand or complaint workers make, regardless if they are minimal. For instance, if they detect a worker asking about the labor union, and worker's rights or if any dissatisfaction emerges with respect to working conditions, the worker may be discharged on the spot, without indemnity or benefits of any kind.
But what the employers are terrified of the most, and what they try to avoid at any price, is when the workers assume a class conscious position (a classist or revolutionary position.) To that end, they again use snitchery. So anyone openly manifesting support for our people's struggle is fired and denounced with the jacket of "presumed subversive."
In the factories, the workers must endure the most inhumane and humiliating working conditions. Due to the meager pay they get, they are forced to work long overtime hours, more than 12 hours a day, even on Sundays and holidays. That's the only way for them to make ends meet for their barest necessities, all to the benefit of the employers, whose profits go up as a result.
INHUMAN WORKING CONDITIONS In most cases, the workers are not provided even with the minimal safety equipment to perform their daily journey. They are not given boots, gloves, masks or hard hats, no uniforms, and if any of these protective gears are provided, they are of the worse quality. Metallurgical and mining workers are among the most affected by this situation, and suffer many accidents and sicknesses due to the lack of safety and environmental protection.
Neither do they get medical attention, nor have any insurance or facilities enabling the injured workers to recover, on the contrary, they are quickly fired so the employer can avoid the extra expenditures caused by the accident or the work related disease.
Facing this situation, the young workers are increasingly taking up their historic roles and duties within the process now developing in our country. They readily take their battle posts in the struggle as the motor force of society, and as proletarians who are the leading class of the revolution. The youth show their repudiation and class hatred for all this exploitation they and the people are subjected to. Let's hear some testimonies:
WE CAN CHANGE OUR DESTINY A metallurgic worker from Argentina Avenue (Lima's traditional industrial center) states: "Today the people have said `enough!' They are tired of waiting for promises, and now they fight for their emancipation. As workers we take up the role that belongs to us, and together with the peasants are assuming the leadership role corresponding to us, and together with the peasants and the petty bourgeoisie, we are demolishing the old state, thus putting an end to all exploitation."
A young worker from the Rayon textile factory says: "We have already taken up our historical role; we know we can change our destiny, that's why we will continue to combat and resist until our emancipation."
Today in Peru, the working class youth learn how to accomplish their role in history as the leading class of the revolution. They do so by drawing a sharp dividing line with revisionism and its trade union hacks entrenched in places like the General Workers Confederation (CGTP), sellouts who have never cared about the problems of the working youth and instead betray the class by supporting the anti-popular measures of the genocidal dictatorship of Fujimori, which is a reactionary monster that helps employers fire workers from their jobs at will, or even eliminate by presidential decree, historic conquests such as job stability and others.
With respect to the situation of the working class, in his 1988 Interview, President Gonzalo states: "The working class must be won over more and more until they and the people recognize the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) as their vanguard."
Today, that is already happening: The class has been creating new types of organizations that incorporate the struggle for immediate demands for better living conditions to serve the struggle to seize power. For example, there is the Movement of Classist Employees and Workers (MOTC- Movimiento de Obreros y Trabajadores Clasistas), the Revolutionary Movement in Defense of the People (MRDP), that calls the armed strikes and other actions. Hence, the slogan: "COMBAT AND RESIST" is heard ever louder from the fighting voices of workers, who are sharpening their struggles.
The above was seen in the recent massive demonstrations throughout the country on May, June and July 1997. These mass protests were conducted by the class conscious bases of the CGTP (who put aside the revisionist leadershipopposed to the strikes), the state workers, SUTEP teachers, miners of Centromin and Toquepala, oil workers of Talara, health workers and doctors, bases of Federation of university students (FEP), secondary students, Federation of Street Vendors (ambulantes), Association of Relatives and Families of Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War, Association of Democratic Lawyers, and the powerful workers' syndicates based around Argentina Avenue and the belt of the Central Highway. They, waving the red banner of the PCP and the People's War filled the plazas, streets and factories of the country. All of these actions have shaken up the dictatorship and its genocidal heads: Fujimori, Montesinos and Hermoza Rios who are being largely secluded in military garrisons. That was the clearest warning to the imperialist financial markets and foreign investors in Peru, who are trying to supply oxygen to the bloody tyranny, to get out!
In this manner, the working class -and within it the youth, take up the role of developing themselves within the People's War, which today after 17 years, fights for the class and the people, toward the conquest of power countrywide.
Peru People's Movement (MPP).